Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 135, Ed. 1 Friday, December 15, 2017 Page: 3 of 19
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STATE/NATIONAL
3A
Denton Record-Chronicle
Friday, December 15, 2017
aide resigns after #MeToo comment
Paxton
took office in February 2015, his
Iinkedln profile states, which
described his job duties as “as-
sisting in supervision” of lllitiga-
tion divisions at the agency.
Leonie was behind an AG’s
office letter that blasted a Frisco-
area high school for allowing
Muslim students to use an emp-
ty classroom to pray. The letter,
which alleged the school might
be infringing on the constitu-
tional rights of its non-Muslim
students, was called a “political
stunt” by district staff who said
the room was open to all stu-
dents.
The post went up at 2:40
a.m. on Wednesday. By Thurs-
day afternoon, Leonie had re-
signed.
In a press release, Paxton’s of-
fice said Leonie’s exit was effec-
tive immediately.
“The views he expressed on
social media do not reflect our
values,” Director of Communi-
cations Marc Rylander wrote.
“The OAG is committed to pro-
moting and maintaining a
workplace that is free from dis-
crimination and harassment.”
Leonie’s post was removed
late Thursday afternoon. His bio
was changed from “Associate
Deputy Attorney General” to
“Retired.”
It linked to an article from
the conservative website The
Federalist titled, “Can we be
honest about women?” The
teaser to the article, which was
written by a woman, states:
“Here’s a little secret we have to
say out loud: Women love the
sexual interplay they experience
with men, and they relish men
desiring their beauty.”
Leonie, a former judge and
assistant district attorney, was
named associate deputy attor-
ney general in the Office of Spe-
cial Litigation just after Paxton
now-Gov. Greg Abbott, Paxton’s
predecessor, as a regional chief
for consumer protection and
special litigator, according to
Leonie’s Iinkedln. His salary
was listed as $150,984 in April
on the Texas Tribune’s salary ex-
plorer.
apologies in the private sector,
change is slower in the political
realm, where it’s usually up to
voters to oust elected officials ac-
cused of sexual misconduct.
In Texas, for example, Re-
publican Congressman Blake
Farenthold on Thursday decid-
ed against re-election after al-
legations he made lewd com-
ments and unleashed profani-
ty-laced tirades on staffers. The
decision was made after Faren-
thold declined to resign for
weeks after news broke he once
used $84,000 in taxpayer
money to settle a harassment
claim.
By Lauren McGaughy
The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN — A top lawyer in
the Office of Texas Attorney
General Ken Paxton resigned
Thursday after reports he wrote
a Facebook post that called
women’s sexual misconduct al-
legations “pathetic.”
Associate Deputy Attorney
General Andrew D. Leonie took
to Facebook this week to post
the following: “Aren’t you also
tired of all the pathetic ‘me too’
victim claims? If every woman is
a ‘victim’ so is every man. If ev-
eryone is a victim, no one is. Vic-
tim means nothing anymore.”
Leonie’s post comes as some
conservatives question the in-
creasing number of sexual ha-
rassment and assault claims
against the nation’s most power-
ful men in media, politics and
business.
While the often-horrific sto-
ries have led to a number of
high-profile resignations and
He previously worked for
Lawmaker ends life in suicide
BRIEFLY
STATE AND THE U.S.
Thursday with DaVita Rx. The
company is based in nearby
Coppell.
Authorities say the settle-
ment resolves allegations that
DaVita billed federal health care
programs for prescriptions that
were never shipped. Allegations
were raised that the company
didn’t comply with require-
ments for documentation of
proof of delivery, refill requests
or patient consent.
The settlement also resolves
claims that DaVita violated laws
against paying kickbacks to pro-
gram beneficiaries or extending
unwarranted discounts.
Houston
Two crushed when
house being raised falls
Two men working to lift a
house onto a higher foundation
after being flooded by Hurri-
cane Harvey have died when the
house fell on them.
Harris County emergency of-
ficials say the accident happened
just after 11 a.m. Thursday when
the jacks being used to lift the
house collapsed in a suburban
Houston subdivision near Bush
Intercontinental Airport.
The house dropped about 3
feet onto the men. Assistant
Chief A1 Sterkx of the Harris
County Emergency Services
District 10 said emergency crews
had to use special equipment to
lift the house off the men.
No identities have been re-
leased.
By Adam Beam
Asociated Press
FRANKFORT, Ky. - The
Kentucky lawmaker’s resume
included enough material for an
award-winning memoir: He
was a peacekeeper at the Rod-
ney King riots in Los Angeles, a
White House chaplain to three
presidents and a 9/11 first re-
sponder who gave last rites to
hundreds of people at Ground
Zero.
But Republican Dan John-
son’s carefully crafted history
crumbled this week following an
extensively reported story from
the Kentucky Center for Investi-
gative Reporting. The story tore
down his claims and portrayed
him as a con man whose decep-
tions propped up his ministry of
a church of outcasts in Louisville
and hid a sinister secret: a sexual
assault allegation from a 17-year-
old girl.
Johnson denied it all, declar-
ing his innocence from the pul-
pit of the church where he was
the self-appointed “pope.” By
Wednesday night, he was dead,
his body found on the side of a
secluded road with a self-inflict-
ed gunshot wound to the head.
The death of the 57-year-old
jolted Republican leaders, who
were already struggling with a
sexual harassment scandal that
toppled the state’s first GOP
House speaker in nearly 100
years plus three other Republi-
can committee chairmen. Most
in the party had already turned
their back on Johnson, calling
for his resignation following the
sexual assault allegation and his
history of posting racist photos
on Facebook that depicted Pres-
ident Barack Obama and first la-
dy Michelle Obama as monkeys.
By Thursday, many were of-
fering messages of sympathy
while acknowledging Johnson’s
complex life.
“He was passionate about
Philadelphia
Loose bovine returns
to nativity scene
A cow in Philadelphia appar-
ently wanted to be away from
the manger, as it escaped twice
Thursday morning from a
church’s live nativity scene.
Stormy, a 7-year-old brown
and white Hereford, was back
munching hay at Old First Re-
formed Church of Christ by
7:15 a.m. after two sets of ad-
ventures on snowy downtown
streets.
Police first got reports of a
cow near an Interstate 95 on-
ramp around 2 a.m. Thursday.
One of the state police troop-
ers who responded has a cattle
ranch in New Jersey and knew
how to handle the situation,
WPVI-TV reports. Officers put a
rope on the cow and walked her
to a nearby parking lot with po-
lice vehicles helping shepherd
Stormy back to church. Some
lanes of the highway had to be
shut down.
But for Stormy, all was not
calm and bright. She fled again
around 6 a.m., despite the Rev.
Michael Caine’s best efforts to
stop the 1,500-pound animal.
She then ambled toward a ma-
jor thoroughfare as the morning
rush got underway.
This time, the bovine was
tracked down on the fourth floor
of a parking garage about a
block south of the church.
By late morning, Stormy was
loaded into a trailer to head back
to the Manatawna Saul Farm,
which is a high school 4-H club
that owns her.
Texarkana
Junior high students
charged with assault
Felony arrest warrants have
been issued for five Texarkana
middle school students accused
of involvement in the sexual as-
sault of a 10-year-old girl aboard
a school bus.
A Texarkana Police Depart-
ment statement Thursday says
the students are ages 13 and 14
and faces charges ranging from
sexual assault to indecency
with a child. The statement
says officers are working with
the juveniles’ parents to ar-
range for the suspects to turn
themselves in.
The assault report initially
filed Dec. 1 says the bus was car-
rying the Pleasant Grove Middle
School boys’ basketball team
back from a Nov. 30 game in
Paris, Texas, when the incident
happened.
Dallas
DaVita Rx to pay nearly
$64M in billing dispute
A Texas-based pharmacy
chain that specializes in patients
with kidney problems will pay
nearly $64 million to settle alle-
gations of improper billing and
other disputed financial practic-
Timothy D. Easley/AP
Kentucky state Rep. Republican Dan Johnson addresses the public from his church regarding
sexual assault allegations in Louisville, Ky., on Tuesday. Johnson died Wednesday night.
others, I saw it often yet he need-
ed help himself,” GOP state Rep.
Jim DuPlessis, who sat beside
Johnson on the House floor,
posted on Twitter.
Johnson’s wife, Rebecca
Johnson, said her husband was
the victim of a “high-tech lynch-
ing” and announced she would
run to replace him in the Legis-
lature.
first impression,” said David Ad-
ams, a political operative who
worked with Johnson on his
campaign.
On the church’s website,
Johnson claimed to have healed
sick people during a visit to
South America in 1991, includ-
ing the incredible story of raising
a woman from the dead. The
miracles were detailed in a letter
from David Fischer, pastor of a
church in California.
Fischer told the investigative
reporting center that he did not
witness those events and could
not point the agency to anyone
who had.
On his financial disclosure
forms, Johnson listed his only
source of income as workers
compensation from the state of
New York. He said that money
was from injuries he suffered
while working as a chaplain im-
mediately following the 9/11 ter-
rorist attack in New York City.
But the reporting center, after a
seven-month effort, could find
no evidence that Johnson was in
New York that day.
In a Facebook message post-
ed hours before his death, John-
son hinted that he suffered from
post-traumatic stress disorder
relating to what he witnessed in
New York, details that he shared
with friends through the years,
including Republican state Sen.
Dan Seum.
“He struggled with that. I
know he did. The fact it was so
horrific that he was involved in
praying over these people,”
Seum said. “I believed him. I had
no reason not to.”
The sexual assault allegation
came from Maranda Richmond,
a former member of Johnson’s
church.
Elected in 2016, he was part
of a wave of Republican victories
that gave the GOP a majority in
the Kentucky House for the first
time in nearly 100 years. But be-
fore that, he was the pastor of
Heart of Fire Church in Louis-
ville, which prided itself on wel-
coming “real people.”
“It was a biker church, so
there was lots of leather jackets,
lots of long hair and people that
if you ran into them on the
street, you might have a different
GOP’s Farenthold won’t seek re-election
cy Pelosi, D-Califi, reiterated her
call for Kihuen to resign, but the
lawmaker has said he will re-
main in office and would wel-
come an ethics investigation to
clear his name.
In a statement Thursday, Ki-
huen said he wouldn’t discuss
any details of the relationships
he’s had with women while in
elected office.
“During my 10 years in the
legislature, I dated several differ-
ent women. Out of respect for
their privacy, I won’t discuss my
communications or any other
details of those relationships,” he
said.
color jokes and behavior that in
general was less than profes-
sional.”
media and sports. While Faren-
thold couldn’t survive the on-
slaught, a first-term Nevada
Democrat continued to resist
calls to step aside.
Rep. Ruben Kihuen, D-Nev.,
on Thursday faced a fresh accu-
sation as a lobbyist claimed he
touched her thighs and buttocks
on several occasions and made
unwanted sexual advances
while he was a state senator. The
Nevada Independent pub-
lished the report but withheld
her name.
The accusations came less
than two weeks after a former
staffer said Kihuen harassed her
during his 2016 congressional
campaign.
House Minority Leader Nan-
By Juliet Linderman
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Bowing
to pressure from fellow Repub-
licans, Texas Rep. Blake Faren-
thold said Thursday he would
not seek re-election to a fifth
term, apologizing for his angry
outbursts but denying sexual ha-
rassment allegations.
In a five-minute video on his
campaign’s Facebook page, Fa-
renthold denied a former aide’s
three-year-old accusations that
he’d subjected her to sexually
suggestive comments and be-
havior and then fired her after
she complained. But he apolo-
gized for an office atmosphere
he said included “destructive
gossip, offhand comments, off-
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-
Wis., told reporters he’d spoken
twice to Farenthold on Wednes-
day and suggested there were
additional accusations that had
yet to surface.
“Unacceptable behavior has
been alleged in those stories, and
I think he’s made the right deci-
sion that he’s going to be leaving
Congress and that reflects some
of the conversations we’ve had,”
Ryan said.
Farenthold joins the list of
lawmakers leaving Congress
amid allegations of sexual mis-
conduct that have also toppled
powerful men in Hollywood, the
es.
Federal prosecutors in Dallas
announced the agreement
— The Associated Press
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 135, Ed. 1 Friday, December 15, 2017, newspaper, December 15, 2017; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1131652/m1/3/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .