Woman accuses Cain of bold sexual advance

By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press – 8 hours ago

NEW YORK (AP) — Leaving little to the imagination, a Chicago-area woman
on Monday accused Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain of making
a crude sexual advance more than a decade ago when she was seeking his
help finding a job.

"Come clean," Sharon Bialek challenged Cain at a news conference in New
York at which she described herself as "a face and a voice" to support
other accusers who have so far remained anonymous.

Cain's campaign swiftly denied Bialek's account. "All allegations of
harassment against Mr. Cain are completely false," it said in a written
statement.

Even so, Bialek's nationally broadcast appearance on cable television
marked a new and — for Cain — dangerous turn in a controversy that he
has struggled for more than a week to shed. An upstart in the
presidential race, Cain shot to the top of public opinion polls in
recent weeks and emerged, however temporarily, as the main conservative
challenger to Mitt Romney.

Accompanied by her prominent lawyer, Gloria Allred, Bialek accused Cain
of making a sexual advance one night in mid-July 1997, when she had
travelled to Washington to have dinner with him in hopes he could help
her find work.

She said the two had finished dinner and were in a car for what she
thought was a ride to an office building.

"Instead of going into the offices he suddenly reached over and he put
his hand on my leg, under my skirt toward my genitals," she said.

"He also pushed my head toward his crotch," she added.

Bialek said she told her boyfriend, an unidentified pediatrician, as
well as a longtime male friend of the episode.

Allred, a sex discrimination attorney with Democratic ties, moved
preemptively to blunt any attacks on Bialek's motives. She described her
client as a registered Republican, a single mother and a woman with a
long and successful work history.

Some of Cain's allies immediately made a target of Allred, a Democratic
campaign donor, rather than focusing any anger on Cain's accuser.

Georgia state Sen. Joshua McKoon, who has endorsed Cain, accused Allred
of "carnival theatrics" fueled by a partisan agenda.

"Her involvement makes it clear that it's a political smear job
orchestrated by those on the left because there is nothing more
terrifying than Herman Cain as the Republican nominee," the Republican
lawmaker said.

But Doug Heye, a political consultant who is unaligned in the GOP race,
said Bialek's allegations "are different because they involve a name and
specific details."

He said Allred's involvement "is going to make some people disbelieve
the charges out of hand because of the side show she creates. But Herman
Cain has to be clear and convincing in his response."

Even before Bialek stepped forward, presidential rival Jon Huntsman and
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour had publicly urged Cain to address sexual
harassment allegations in greater detail.

It wasn't clear whether he would.

After spending much of last week denying accusations, he told reporters
who sought to question him Saturday night, "don't even go there."

Cain had an evening appearance scheduled on the Jimmy Kimmel show, his
only public event of the day.

According to lawyer and client, Bialek was employed for parts of 1996
and 1997 at the Educational Foundation of the National Restaurant
Association, an industry trade group that Cain headed at the time. She
said she first met him at an organization convention, interacting with
him several times over the course of a few days.

After she was fired from her job about a month later, she said her
boyfriend told her, "Herman seems to think highly of you. Why don't you
contact him?"

That led to a trip to Washington about a month later, where she recalled
that Cain upgraded her hotel room to a suite, and made his unwanted
sexual advance.

She said she asked Cain what he was doing, and recalled he replied, "You
said you want a job, right?"

Given her experience and those of other accusers, "I want you, Mr. Cain,
to come clean," she said. "Just admit what you did. Admit you were
inappropriate to people."

She added: "Mr. Cain, I implore you: Make this right so that you and the
country can move forward and focus on the real issues at hand."

The denial from Cain's campaign was as unequivocal as the allegation.

"Just as the country finally begins to refocus on our crippling $15
trillion national debt and the unacceptably high unemployment rate, now
activist celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred is bringing forth more false
accusations against the character of Republican front-runner Herman
Cain," it said.

"Mr. Cain has never harassed anyone."

Before Bialek stepped to the microphone, the allegations involved two
women who had worked at the National Restaurant Association, both of
whom filed sexual harassment complaints.

A third woman told The Associated Press last week that she considered
filing a workplace complaint against Cain over what she deemed sexually
suggestive remarks and gestures that included a private invitation to
his corporate apartment.

A former pollster for the restaurant association has said he witnessed
yet another episode involving a fourth woman.

Allred has represented several high-profile clients, including Amber
Frey, a witness against convicted California killer Scott Peterson.
Allred also represented a woman whom news reports accused of having an
affair with golfer Tiger Woods.

"I consider sexual harassment the No. 1 problem in the workplace," she
told the AP in an interview last week. "It denies equal opportunity in
the workforce. If (women) don't protest it, they'll have to continue to
suffer."

Associated Press writers Philip Elliott in Washington and Shannon
McCaffrey in Atlanta contributed to this story.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.