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Council feud apparently heads to court
By JENNIFER GOLDBLATT NEW PORT RICHEY -- Tom Finn said he is moving forward with suing fellow New Port Richey council member Ginny Miller for slander, two weeks after he called for her resignation and an apology because she accused him of sexual harassment, and her husband threatened to kill him if he touched her again. Finn's warning stems from an incident at a redevelopment conference in Miami last month. There, Finn said he tapped Miller on the shoulder. But she said on the spot that Finn's action was sexual harassment. She later told the Times that the contact was more than a touch on the shoulder, but declined to elaborate. More than two weeks after the Miami conference, Miller's husband approached Finn at an event and said that if he ever touched his wife again that he would kill him. Finn introduced the issue at a City Council meeting two weeks ago, and warned that if an apology or a voluntary resignation from Miller was not forthcoming, then he would formally charge both Millers with assault and organize a forfeiture of office hearing in which other council members would judge her actions. Miller maintained that Finn touched her inappropriately, she called him on it and that she had nothing to apologize for. Finn told the Times on Tuesday that he is in the process of hiring a lawyer to sue Ginny Miller for slander. "It's been two weeks. I guess she made her bed, now she's going to have to sleep in it," he said. ". . . She needs to behave. I certainly don't need to have this follow me for the rest of my life. "I was the victim, not the perpetrator," he said. "I tapped her on the shoulder and that's it. It's certainly within someone's right to say they don't want to be touched on the shoulder but to classify that as sexual harassment . . ." Ginny Miller's response to the Times on Tuesday: "Everyone is completely free in this country to pursue their legal rights." Finn also says he plans to go to the police to find out if her husband's threat would be considered an assault. He says that he no longer plans to organize a forfeiture of office hearing to try Miller, because he did not sense that other council members support it. "I want this resolved. I'm not going to have people people looking at Tom Finn in five years, whether I decide to hold another office, and then say back in 2001 he was accused of sexual harassment. "
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From today's Pasco Times |
