ATLANTA,None — A one-time candidate for Georgia governor is aiming a salacious accusation at the current lieutenant governor.
Ray Boyd, a businessman who dropped out of the governor's race, laid out the complaint to the State Ethics Commission on Friday.
Boyd claims Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle had an affair with a female staffer, then paid her nearly $200,000 in campaign funds -- claims Cagle adamantly denies.
Lt. Governor Accused In Sex Scandal
Boyd admitted to Channel 2's Mike Petchenik that he's put in writing a rumor that has swirled through the capitol for years. "You know, normally rumors, they get different every time you hear them. This one stays the same every time," said Boyd.
Channel 2's Richard Belcher obtained the complaint's statement of facts that says flatly "Cagle has been having an affair."
Boyd named the woman, but Channel 2 Action News is withholding the name because the complaint contains no evidence of the charges.
Boyd further alleged Cagle had at least one sexual encounter with the woman in his office at the capitol.
The ethics complaint states Cagle's campaign paid her far above the prevailing market rate for the campaign work she did.
Attached to the complaint is a list of 70 payments from the Cagle campaign to the woman during 2006 and 2007. They total more than $181,000.
Ray Boyd told Petchenik the fact that the woman in the sex rumor is the woman getting all that money is enough for him.
"And so I started looking at this issue about where the money went. Where and who's paying? Maybe she's been getting paid. I don't see anybody else making that kind of money," said Boyd.
The woman accused of the affair with Cagle told Channel 2, "Mr. Boyd's accusations are appalling and insulting. There is no truth to any of this whatsoever. As a private citizen, I'm shocked that he and others would bring me into their failing and desperate campaign." Polls suggest Cagle is cruising to re-election against Carol Porter, an underfunded Democratic opponent.
Cagle's campaign manager, Ryan Cassin, released a statement to Channel 2: "Mr. Boyd's allegation is absolutely false and deliberately hurtful to the Lt. Governor, his family and the staff who work for him. Carol Porter obviously wants someone else to spread lies on her behalf, and her willingness to spoon feed poison to an attention-seeking millionaire is despicable and pathetic. We expect Carol's dirty tricks team to continue these kinds of attacks over the next several days in a desperate attempt to erase a 20 point deficit."
But Porter said she had nothing to do with the accusations.
"Casey Cagle's attacks are a false and desperate attempt to deflect from the situation. We had no knowledge of Mr. Boyd's ethics complaint until called by Lori Geary from WSB-TV. Mr. Boyd seems to be fed up with the corruption and as Charles Bullock has coined it, 'the fraternity boy antics' under the gold dome," Porter said in a statement. "The whole experience dealing with all of these allegations has been a distraction during my entire campaign. Nearly every reporter has asked me about these allegations since I entered the race and I have refused to publicly speak out because I can beat him on the issues."
The accusations are also coming under attack by the attorney for a state employee who purportedly witnessed the sexual encounter.
State Sen. Seth Harp is her attorney, and he told Channel 2 Action News his client flatly denies having seen any sexual encounter between Cagle and the woman named in the complaint.
Harp's client said in a statement, "The author of this ethics complaint, Ray Boyd, has harassed me and my family at home and at work over the past several weeks in an effort to coerce me into lying. Mr. Boyd, working directly with the Carol Porter campaign, has offered both high-paying jobs and full payment of my ongoing chemotherapy expenses in exchange for false testimony about events that never happened and I have denied dozens of times."