his prostitute girlfriend
New questions in 2005 arrest of Democratic lieutenant governor nominee
Share | UPDATED at 8:24 p.m. with additional Quinn comment; originally posted by David Heinzmann and Ray Long at 7:55 p.m.
The newly minted Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor said Wednesday he doesn’t think a 2005 domestic battery arrest should hurt him in the fall general election, although records in the case raise questions about his version of events.
Scott Lee Cohen, a pawnbroker who was the surprise winner in the little-publicized contest among half a dozen candidates, had previously disclosed the arrest. He described it Wednesday as an argument with his drunken girlfriend and said he didn’t lay a hand on her, though she called the police and had him taken into custody.
But the official police and court records show that the woman alleged Cohen put a knife to her throat and pushed her head against the wall.
In their October 14 arrest report detailing the complaint from the 24-year-old woman, Chicago police noted they observed “mild abrasions from knife wound” on her neck. They also noted “minor scars on her hand from her trying to defend herself against the arrestee swinging the knife at her.” The report notes the woman was seen by ambulance personnel but not taken to a hospital.
The case was dropped a month later when the woman did not show up for a court date.
Also, public records show that the alleged victim, Scott’s 24-year-old girlfriend at the time, was a prostitute. Six months before the October 2005 incident, she had been arrested after a police investigation of a Glenview massage parlor. She later pleaded guilty to a charge of prostitution.
Through a spokesman Cohen said he did not know at the time that the woman was a prostitute and that she had told him she worked as a “massage therapist.”
Cohen's spokesman said the woman’s accusations about the assault were false, and pointed to the fact that the case was dropped as evidence that complaint was baseless.
“These are accusations of what she says happened, but that is not what happened,” said campaign spokesman Phil Molfese.
Molfese said that he doubted that the marks on the woman’s neck that were noted by the arresting officers could have been made by a knife, and Cohen stands by his claim that he did not touch the woman.
“Those abrasions, we don’t know where they came from,” Molfese said.
Cohen sat down for an interview with the Tribune early Wednesday afternoon, during which he characterized the incident as an argument in which she was drunk and made allegations. After the Tribune obtained the arrest report later in the day and contacted the campaign about the discrepancies, Cohen was unavailable. Molfese downplayed the importance of the whole incident.
“I think this is totally ridiculous,” he said. “They were living together. They had a fight.”
In the earlier interview with Cohen, he had characterized his relationship with the woman as “tumultuous,” and said that he was going through a difficult time as his marriage was breaking up and he “fell in with the wrong crowd.”
“He admits he was not in an ideal place at that time,” Molfese said. “People sometimes get off track. He was going through a divorce.”
The new disclosures added another element of unrest to a roiled political landscape after Tuesday’s primary elections, which left the outcome of the Democratic and Republican nominations for governor in doubt.
Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who was holding a tight lead over rival Dan Hynes, spent little time Wednesday morning discussing the background of Cohen, the man who would be his running mate in the general election.
Quinn said he had not yet spoken to Cohen. Asked about the dropped battery case, Quinn said he doesn't "like to have any opinions on things where I don’t have the facts.”
“One thing I was impressed with was he’s committed to jobs,” Quinn said. “I think he’s had jobs fairs all over. I look forward to anybody who wants to get the economy moving again and good jobs for Illinois… anyone committed to that is OK with me.”
Later Wednesday, when Quinn was asked about the specifics of the police report by the Tribune, he said "I think it's important that he explain exactly what went on there. I'm anxious to hear that."
Quinn called the allegations in the police report "troubling" but said he was not aware of any attempts to get Cohen off the ballot.
"I think any candidate, when questions come up, needs to be forthright and answer any and all questions," Quinn said.
Cohen, a political novice, used his own money to blanket Chicago with broadcast ads touting job fairs he sponsored as a way to publicize his campaign.
