Chain of evidence: Just another tale of a family values politician caught … or not
When I first read the story, I thought this has all the elements. Move over Sen. John Ensign. Move over Gov. Mark Sanford. Here comes a real scandal.
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| Paul Stanley |
According to various reports out of Tennessee, none of which appear to have yet made the national wire services, family values, evangelical Christian state Sen. Paul Stanley was involved in a blackmail sting set up by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation in April.
The boyfriend of a 22-year-old legislative intern reportedly contacted Stanley demanding $10,000 in return for a memory disc he said contained explicit photos of the intern that appeared to had been taken at Stanley’s apartment. He also told police Stanley had a sexual relationship with the young woman.
The TBI provided the cash and the boyfriend and the state senator met behind a local restaurant to make the exchange. The boyfriend was arrested.
Stanley has not yet talked about the matter, but has indicated he might soon.
But there is one element to this at-first-blush tale of sex, pornography, hypocrisy and blackmail for silence that might defuse it in a hurry. Buried at the bottom of a Memphis Daily News story was this factoid: At the time of the arrest, police gave the memory disc to Stanley. Chain of evidence broken?
