"One of the rising stars of GOP politics in America" allegedly commits rape in Cleveland
CLICK THIS TEXT TO VISIT THIS BLOG'S CURRENT SITE
From the Plain Dealer:
The Michigan Federation of Young Republicans' Web site calls group Chairman Michael Flory "one of the rising stars of GOP politics in America."
Investigators in Cleveland believe the 32-year-old lawyer [here's his law firm's site] is also a rapist.
Cleveland detectives have been investigating a 21-year-old woman's claim that Flory took sexual advantage of her last July 8 while the two were in town for the National Federation of Young Republicans' annual convention.
Court records indicate Cuyahoga County prosecutors recently presented a case against Flory to a grand jury, which hasn't yet taken any action. Several law-enforcement sources said they expect an indictment today on multiple charges, including rape and kidnapping.
"He has made my life a living hell," the young woman said in a brief interview Tuesday.
Flory, who runs two law offices in central Michigan, could not be reached Tuesday to comment. His Cleveland attorney, William McGinty, declined to remark on the case because the grand jury was still considering it.
Prosecutor Bill Mason said he could not discuss the case until an indictment is filed.
[hyperlinks added]For the record, I do not, under any circumstances, EVER expect my current rep to be involved in any kind of illegal or disgusting behavior as intimated by the above article. However, he is no stranger to the Young Republicans. Some of his campaign's supporters were involved with Young Republicans and I have to believe that some of these folks, who overlap with the Greater Cleveland Young Republicans and Mandel's campaign (as well as people Mandel has supported) had at the very least tangential participation, if not a lot more, in the National Convention of Young Republicans that was held here last summer.
Former Cuyahoga County Rep. Chair Jim Trakas, current Chair Rob Frost and maybe others need to come out and provide confidence that Cleveland is a safe place to host such events and that, if the allegations prove to be true, they of course condemn the occurance for happening in conjunction with that national convention.
Some people here must know something. Which ones, what do they know and when did they know it?
JBlog Me
12 Comments:
For the record, Josh wasn't even present during the convention at all. It's an unfortunate event and does give Young Republicans a black eye, but if you look at the details, it could have happened anywhere at anytime. It's just sad it happened here, and since it's political it becomes a huge story. You're right in posting this but wrong insinuating that Josh should be held accountable for this horrible action.
I appreciate your comment and I did not mean to insinuate that Josh be held accountable.
What I did intend to insinuate but perhaps should just said flat out is that Josh has connections to many people who were there and I would PRAY that he gets to them good and fast and helps them clear it out of here, for everyone's sake.
It will be interesting to see what the grand jury does.
Thanks for reading and leaving that comment, sincerely.
"What I did intend to insinuate but perhaps should just said flat out is that Josh has connections to many people who were there and I would PRAY that he gets to them good and fast and helps them clear it out of here, for everyone's sake."
I don't quite understand what you're getting at. The accused and the victim are both from Michigan, so Josh doesn't have any connections with them. And since the alleged incident occurred after hours, after everyone had left, who is Josh supposed to get to and what are they supposed to clear? Are the republican leaders of Cuyahoga County supposed to come out and condemn Flory (by the way, whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty)? Is the implication supposed to be that the GOP condones these actions if they remain silent?
Deciding that nothing needs to be said is always one choice. It's not the choice I'm promoting. Why wouldn't I promote that choice? Because of the perceptions. I've used the word alleged to describe what may have occurred, I've referred to waiting for the grand jury's action.
But I read your comment as very naive when it comes to perceptions, regardless of any provable (is that a word?) connections.
This isn't about any one Republican elected official or party member. This is about the reputation of the party and its members as an organization and what it wants to project.
There are plenty of excellent crisis managers out there to consult and I have confidence that that is happening. That's a good thing. But I still want to know: who knew what when?
If there's an insinutation, anon, it's to a moniker and not an individual.
Someone's touchy, eh?
Hey, Republicans have been metaphorically raping the electorate and the country for a very long time, so no big surprise here. But the whole idea of a Young Republican is so creeepy, isn't it? It's one thing to become an R after you've reached your mature years and have a mortgage, pay taxes, etc. But to be so jaded and so lacking in even elemental idealism early in life? How sad.
Hi John - well, the creep factor is very high for me because of the age difference, not so much the party affiliation, although again, like with the bloggerstorm/Edwards/Marcotte thing going on, there's some hypocrisy that I can't accept that comes from a party that espouses traditional values and then has chairs who behave this way. That's the problem I have, from a party perspective. Not to say Dems go around saying, we're loose so at least we're not hypocrites, but the fact is, Dems don't run around pretending that they're holier than though, as a plank in their platform.
But first, it's the age issue and then the possible hostile environment boss/staff issue and the "how do we trust our kids to go into such work" issue - as with after the Mark Foley scandal.
So - it's an aggregate of things. Sure, it could have been a Democrat at a national convention of young dems. But it wasn't.
Check out some of the comment here, Red.
Flory ran for National YR office and was resoundly rejected. To try to attach him to the YRs to smear them is a little low. Rotten apples persist in every organization, but airing them out as if they represent the whole is misleading.
Michigan was put on probation by YRNF, wasn't it? Sounds like a lot of hubbub about nothing.
O-Thanks for reading and commenting. I would have to google that about YRNF just as I guess you would unless you have other sources of knowledge about the group.
If he's proven guilty, throw the book at him. I don't consider myself to be a pious person, but I am dreadfully weary of reading about those who perpetrate such cruel acts. You may be creeped out by the age difference, but I am creeped out by the sheer lack of scruples.
John Etorre, you obviously don't know a thing about the cruel devastation that is rape if you can be so cavalier about bandying about the term on a metaphorical level.
The stuff I've turned up on this case is extremely unsettling. I can't make it all out, but it's looking like there's a lot below the surface.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home