Former Chair of MI Young Republicans, Michael Flory, pleads guilty to sexual battery CLICK THIS TEXT TO VISIT THIS BLOG'S CURRENT SITE

From The Plain Dealer:

Assistant County Prosecutor Carol Skutnik said [Michael] Flory's lawyers, Henry Hilow and Bill McGinty, surprised her with a plea offer as trial witnesses from several states were arriving to testify.

The plea bargain, she said, doesn't include any suggestion of leniency, and the state will seek incarceration. She also said she hopes to present evidence of several "other incidents of sexual misconduct" in which Flory took advantage of vulnerable young women.

The victim, who is 22, declined to speak after Flory's guilty plea.

She and some supporters lamented when the incident became public last winter that Flory and his followers within the Republican organization had been smearing her reputation in retaliation for accusing Flory of rape. Skutnik said she found that to be true.

"People were using every opportunity to try to trash her, on Web sites or whatever," the prosecutor said. "He's been running around telling everybody what a piece of trash she is, so she was very happy to see him plead guilty.

Read the article for more information.

And still, I say, this happened in Cleveland, last summer, during an event with many young people, including "rising stars" of the NEO Republican persuasion. I find it extremely difficult to believe that not a single one of them knew what was going on. Though I don't anticipate that any of them will say anything.

I will, however, repeat what I wrote at the very beginning, in February, that if Cleveland wants to attract large gatherings of similarly aged politically-minded people - and why shouldn't we? Then we need to make it clear that people will be safe among whomever is in town, native or visitor.