Allegations that she was engaged in a lesbian affair have placed Florida’s first female lieutenant governor, Jennifer Carroll, considered by many to be on the short list of possible running mates for presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, in the center of a scandal six weeks before her party’s convention.
Carroll, 52, a married mother of three, has been accused by fired ex-staffer Carletha Cole of engaging in a sexual relationship with her travel aide, Beatriz Ramos. The accusations were part of a court filing made by Cole’s attorney, according to news reports.
Cole, 49, was arrested last October on charges that she taped a conversation with another aide and gave the recording to a newspaper reporter. But Cole contends she was fired after she walked into the lieutenant governor’s office and found her and Ramos in a “compromising position,” according to a July 5 motion filed by Cole’s lawyer, Stephen Webster, and cited by The Miami Herald.
Cole also alleged that Carroll’s chief of staff routinely recorded conversations at the behest of Gov. Rick Scott’s staff. In Florida, it is illegal to record someone without their consent.
Carroll has denied the allegations, saying a disgruntled Cole was trying to get the charges against her dropped.
“That’s totally false and absurd,” Carroll, a Navy veteran, told The Associated Press. “They are trying to pull at straws.”
