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| Marty Nothstein, left,and campaign manager Dennis Roddy |
This supposed sexual misconduct, by the way, is nothing that just happened recently. It is alleged to have occurred in 2000, over 18 years ago. At that time, Nothstein said he was "living like a monk," rising at 6 am daily and going to sleep by 8 pm. He was training for the Summer Olympics that year and would eventually win a gold medal in Sydney as a sprint cyclist.
Other than the 2000 incident, no other similar complaints have been made about Nothstein.
An anonymous tipster, not one of the alleged victims, complained to USA Cycling about the 2000 incident just 11 days after Nothstein had announced his candidacy for Congress. That tip was shared with SafeSport, an independent nonprofit committed to ending all forms of abuse in sport. It only reports on its investigations when disciplinary action has been taken. There is no report of any disciplinary action against Nothstein.
An anonymous tipster also contacted Upper Macungie police with the same accusations. They and the Lehigh County DA's office investigated and determined these complaints were groundless.
At the time of the anonymous tip, Nothstein was the Velodrome's Executive Director. The Board, chaired at the time by Attorney Andrew Ralston,Jr., placed him on administrative leave without pay in February, and then ended his contract. William Chadwick, a former prosecutor and state inspector general who has been retained by Nothstein, said that the former Olympic cyclist was bound by confidentiality and unable to discuss publicly his suspension.
Ralston, who chaired the Velodrome Board at the time of Nothstein's suspension, was a partner at the Gross, McGinley law firm until 2016. That's where Democratic Congressional candidate Susan Wild was employed until gaining her party's nomination.
He is currently a partner at the White and Williams law firm. That firm was billing the Velodrome for legal services, and Nothstein had raised concerns about it.
Nothstein first became aware of the identities of the two women involved from 2000 because they contacted him after being approached by reporters. His campaign obtained written affidavits from both and they were offered to reporters with on condition that there would be no quotations from the affidavits and the identity of these putative victims would remain confidential. This was refused. Reporters said they wanted to be able to speak to them as well. Nothstein campaign manager Dennis Roddy states he obtained permission to share both affidavits, allow quotations and make both persons available. This offer was rejected, too.
At the news conference, Morning Call reporters declined to respond to Nothstein's claim that "Morning Call reporters declined to so much as meet with [the alleged victims] or examine their statements. Instead, we live in a time when anonymous people in the shadows can spread false allegations and get them into the media ... ."
Reporters directed inquiries to Interim Editor Terry Rang. In a statement, she said the newspaper was unwilling to accept the affidavits under the conditions set by Roddy. But perhaps unknown to her, Roddy dropped those conditions. Efforts to reach her about Roddy's second offer have this far been unsuccessful.
"I want to say to the voters of this district: these are false accusations, planted just days after I began my candidacy. The presumed 'victims' themselves deny such a thing happened. It's time to end this sort of politics. We should be talking about policy, not false rumors."
Nothstein's wife Christi also released a statement in response to The Morning Call story: "I am asking that the people who are lying to destroy Marty's campaign for Congress also understand that they are destroying people's reputation and lives. They are hurting several families by dragging them into this fabricated scandal."
"It was a tough day to send my [PSU-bound] daughter to school today," said Nothstein. "Provide a headline that provides the truth," he suggested. "To pick and choose who you're going to hammer, that's just not fair."
___________
* A fourth reporter, Laura Olson, assisted from Washington.
48 comments:
You started going after Ms. Wild before the primary. You wanted your guy, Morganelli to win. She beat him handily. Now you are doing what you claim Trump does. You are playing games and attacking the Press because you want Nothstein to beat Wild. Do you really think anyone who reads your blog does not understand the games you play?
You are as transparent as a window.
This is no attack on Wild, but on an unfair story that appears to target Nothstein on a bullshit issue. I am astonished that The Morning Call refused to review the affidavits or meet the victims, although there may have been a mixup in communication. Whether it is Wild, Silfies or Nothstein, we are entitled to fair reporting. This one misses the mark badly.
This just goes to show that all that chest pounding by the press the other day - claiming to be great investigators and crying that they're not the enemies of the people - is just pure bullshit.
O'Hare is covering for Nothstein to get back at Wild. No question!
Just one more example of why the press is held in such low esteem, FAKE NEWS with a political motivation. Then cry unfair to any criticism, why should these women be exposed to the press for something that is untrue. The press would write about these innocent women and Nothstein for the rest of the election cycle, ruining family etc. This is an abuse of the power entrusted to press.
Hit piece. This is why the media is viewed as an enemy by many. My friends don't lie and tell half-truths. My enemies do. There's a reason news outlets are going tits up faster than a cheap whore.
Is there a political agenda against Wild here Bernie? Smells real bad.
And they say the press is the friend of the people. I say Bullshit.
A timely example of FAKE NEWS.
Our news media has become weaponized along political ideology. It's happening all over this nation and MUST be rejected. Few would object to a news distributor using one specific space to encourage a preferred opinion, but this goes well beyond. It's malicious.
What the Morning Call did is CREATE news to fit an agenda. It ignored, or twisted information so as to manipulate the truth. We also see a nationwide effort to censure (hide) news that doesn't fit one corporate agenda. Google, YouTube, Facebook, NY Times, etc. are now participating in deception. The list is long.
Every citizen should be disturbed by these practices. This type of junk is not in our public interest. It must be identified and condemned.
Shame on you, Morning Call.
Fred Windish
This is so typical of the Morning Call and others in the main stream media.
First, they print a false story to damage a Republican candidate and help the Democrat candidate.
Then they'll print the other side of the story and claim that they're being fair and unbiased.
The reality is that they didn't have a story and ignored facts that contradicted their narrative. But they printed it anyway to make sure the damage was done.
It isn't the President who makes people believe that many in the press are the enemy of the people, it's articles like this.
It's not just the Morning Call that has fumbled this. Nothstein has been suspended without pay by the Velodrome Board. The investigation on this "incident" is private and accountable, it seems, to no one - the investigators will never, ever say if he's exhonerated, as it's deemed "private," but they will announce who their investigating and release details if/when that person is found guilty. It's a classic guilty until proven innocent trap, without the ability to be proven innocent. Basically, this proves that anyone can anonymously ruin the livlihood, reputation and career prospects by alleging baseless accusations. I really hope this incident serves as a final case study in the dangers of automatically believing every single harrassment allegation, regardless of evidence.
You are getting out in front of yourself here. Your assumption is that the two woman contacted by Safesport who then contacted Nothstein are the only victims. They aren’t. You are assuming the velodrome board knows only about the Safesport case. Thy have covered up for Nothstein for years and now realize they are about to face their own Sandusky like scandal. The Morning Call knows this. A national publication, working on this since January 2017, 20 months ago, knows this. Multiple perpetrators, multiple victims, and 50+ on the record sources, And that story will be out soon. And don’t say I didn’t give you a preview. I said as much in a comment right after the primary.
Based on the press conference, it was may understanding these allegations were made in the fall well before the Primary. Many candidates were not announced.
Nothstein suggested the DA reviewed the charges and after 2 weeks dismissed them. Nothstein suggested he first learned in Feb. If true, that would suggest Nothstein was not interviewed in the fall, or was he?
The commentary references a candidate worked for the same lawfirm as a board member in 2016, despote the board decision was unanimous. Thats like suggesting Upper Mac was influended by a grant they received from a zelection committee Nothstein chaired. Both examples are a irrelevant. Did the DA endorse Nothstein?
It does appear the Mcall could not reference, quote or contact anyone or anything listed in the affidavit(s). Does that suggest there are nondisclosure agreements in place?
I prefer these items stay out of the press until they are substantiated.
Bernie should be the new publisher and chief editor of the Morning Call. No media outlet should ever print or air unfounded or knowingly air false allegations!
The Morning Call and its reporters would have failed any ethics class in journalism.
They did not even disclose in their article that Susan Wild's law firm is the law firm who represents The Morning Call! This is a clear conflict of interest.
The owners of the Morning Call should do an internal investigation led by three journalism ethics professors and any all found violating the most basic ethics rules of journalism should be fired!
My problem with The Morning Call story is that it published allegations of sexual misconduct and purposely chose to ignore affidavits denying it took place and a meeting with the so-called victims. This is eminently unfair. Having been offered exculpatory information, the paper should have reviewed it.
Also, historically, the newspaper has retained Gross, McGinley in defamation cases. It has also hosted numerous stories from Malcolm Gross over the years. I believe the newspaper should have disclosed this connection since until recently, that firm employed Susan Wild. In fact, she is still all over their web page.
"William Chadwick, a former prosecutor and state inspector general who has been retained by Nothstein, said that the former Olympic cyclist was bound by confidentiality and unable to discuss publicly his suspension."
I call bullshit. His suspension was decided by the entire board. He lost his salary. If this happened to me, I wouldn't be "bound by confidentiality". What more could they do to him?
And if those two women didn't want their comments about Nothstein's alleged improprieties to be publicized, I would ask why not? If nothing happened, what would be the big deal about saying so in public?
"You are getting out in front of yourself here. Your assumption is that the two woman contacted by Safesport who then contacted Nothstein are the only victims. They aren’t."
Actually, they are. Nothstein stated during the news conference yesterday, and in the presence of no less than five Morning aCall staffers that I counted, that a SafeSport investigator had already told him they are done and there was no reason to even interview him. In response to a question from me, he stated there are no other shoes out there, waiting to drop. No one from The Morning Call questioned him about these additional matters you claim anonymously are out there. He's been subjected to a witch hunt.
Now I am a Democrat. I believe a free and independent press is very important to a democracy. But the newspaper acted irresponsibly here. they also devoted manpower to bullshit that should be out there covering meetings and some very real scandals, like the GPA nonsense they were too important to cover.
I plan to sue them all after the election....sound familiar
Sounds like you are casting judgement on all newspapers because of one botched story. Bernie himself just commented that there may have been a miscommunication with the editor not accepting the offer to review the affidavits without conditions. And frankly, I don't think any newspaper would have accepted the original offer with all of its conditions. So So I think it's too soon to assume that something nefarious is a foot here. Give the Morning Call a chance to turn this story into what it perhaps should have been framed as all along - someone trying to stir up some muck with a bogus sexual harrassment claim. There is another story here that the Morning Call should be investigating - was Marty canned for questioning the board chairman's legal bills, or was he fired for cause? And why isn't it a conflict of interest for the chair of the Velodrome board to hire his own law firm?
"Nothstein campaign manager Dennis Roddy states he obtained permission to share both affidavits, allow quotations and make both persons available. This offer was rejected, too."
Since when is a campaign manager authorized to allow statements by the alleged victims of his candidate? Why couldn't the alleged victims authorize the press directly?
This smells bad. Could payoffs to the alleged victims be involved? A campaign manager is not a disinterested source.
And Bernie, your skepticism would be a lot more credible if you were a more disinterested source. As it is, you have made clear your aversion to Susan Wild, Nothstein's opponent, and stated that you would not vote for her. Democrat indeed!
Actually, I am about 60% Dem and 40% R. It's true I don't support Wild. Her views correspond to mine, but she lied. I don't support Nothstein either. He is too closely allied to Trump. I do not agree with Libertarian views so i will not support Silfies. So basically, I have no dogs in this hunt.
This is about fairness. The Morning Call was not fair to Nothstein. Had they done the same thing to Susan Wild or Silfies, I would say they were not fair to them.
As for Roddy, these women actually reached out to Nothstein because they were being contacted by reporters. Roddy did not initiate these efforts. These women (at least one of them) knew Nothstein and felt comfortable talking to him, but not to the press. They felt harassed, not by Nothstein, but by the press. I believe Roddy responded with integrity and respect for the privacy of these women.
Do women only have rights when you agree with them?
" Give the Morning Call a chance to turn this story into what it perhaps should have been framed as all along - someone trying to stir up some muck with a bogus sexual harrassment claim. There is another story here that the Morning Call should be investigating - was Marty canned for questioning the board chairman's legal bills, or was he fired for cause? And why isn't it a conflict of interest for the chair of the Velodrome board to hire his own law firm?"
Bingo.
Give the allegations time to be verified. These rumors are not new, just that Marty's run for a position of power means people have more reason to come forward.
Tell me that in a month. I’ll be waiting.
Moreover, what the morning call article said was that he was put on leave for a misconduct allegation. That is 100% true, yet inconvenient for Nothstein. And again you are assuming Nothstein’s word is good on this. I know for a fact it isn’t. Safesport knows of more victims. Nothstein is presenting the ones that told him they were called by Safesport and I’m told he’s still Involved with one of them. A national publication knows of more victims. The velodrome board knows of more victims because they received countless complaints over the years and ignored them. And The Morning Call knows most, but not all, of this as well.
One last thing. Read the statement from his wife. Funny how it doesn’t say anything about it being untrue and that she supports him. She knows it’s true just like everyone else who knows Nothstein in the cycling community. She just wanted to be left alone: I get that. I feel sorry for her and Nothstein’s mom and, of course, his victims. Nothstein, not so much. He’s finally getting what he deserves.
From her complete statement: “I am asking that the people who are lying to destroy Marty’s campaign ...”
Thanks for playing.
Its amazing how in today's climate someone can make a false accusations, and then build a story from it that can be talked about for days. This is the beginning of the end of the press as we know it. It can only get more irrelevant .
I just deleted some rank partisan attacking me bc I won't go along with an idiotic condemnation of Nothstein based on nothing. If you wish to talk to me about me, I insist you ID yourself.
Yes they did this rather than a story about how much the velodrome was overpaying Nothstein, compared to the proportion of the take that usually goes to the exec at a non-profit
I do not believe this story is over. The local cycling community, along with former co-worker of Marty is buzzing, they all know that the only brain Marty has is in his pants. No women has ever worked on the velo staff for more than a season, often less. Several have had financial settlement from the board. When Marty’s predecessor was dismissed for sexual improprieties the board should have also removed Marty for his well known activities. The board is complicit and I wonder how they will plat this.
Bicycling Magazine has also done some background on this matter and perhaps now that they now free from Rodale we will see their stories.
Bernie, itZ them there assklownZ be it a he or a she!
Funny how all these people are buzzing and none of them, including you, have names. Bicycling did a story and no one is slamming Nothstein. Sorry. Better make up some fake names.
https://www.bicycling.com/news/a22758449/marty-nothstein-sexual-misconduct/
Why release a hit piece in August?
Why not wait until October when it can do the most damage?
Asking for a friend.
Good question. I believe TMC could have gone sooner but held off until now. I suspect, but do not know, that it waited until the deadline for withdrawal passed, which was August 13. It would be too late for the GOP to find a suitable replacement. I believe the newspaper thought this story would be viewed far more favorably than has been the case.
Given that it filed numerous RTKs, the paper could do a series on the Velodrome and suggest Nothstein was soaking the organization. He does appear to have enemies.
I suggest the Morning Call investigates the amount of legal bills paid to White Williams by the Velodrome were initiated by Andy Ralston. This self dealing is specifically disallowed by the bylaws of the Velodrome. While they are at it they should investigate why he left the firm of Gross McGinley. Also, I heard that an annomous source stated that Bill White touched a girl with a MusicFest sausage 15 years ago. I am expecting a Front page article about that! The Morning Call is an unfortunate monopoly for written news in the Lehigh Valley. A liberal and unfair monopoly.
I believe that the paper fell short in this story, and have said so. I am suspicious bc they were represented by Gross, McGinley. Having said that, I recall clearly that the paper questioned Sam Bennett's POM salary when she ran for Congress. Its story on the misogyny of LIsa Boscola COS Bernie Keiklak ended her bid before it got off the ground. Overall, i think the paper tries to be fair.
Bernie , I would be willing to bet this wild thing will be the only one on the ballot in center city Allentown pa. Seeing as were the voting machines are stored, and I will be taking picsZ when my card is inserted like last time!
redd
not a party favor
humanist by design
"Give the allegations time to be verified."
Thank you for clearing up that there's no proof and we should adjudicate guilt until proven innocent. I allege you're a child rapist and heroin addict born of incest between your mom and her father. Please give me time to verify, though.
I have been reading this blog for a year and a half now. I already knew that the people running this country were mostly people who were concerned mostly about their self-interest and that they do not mind slinging the mud. To find out that it is the same on a local level makes me sick.
What did he know and when did he know it?
Agree with Bern here.
How about this angle. Seems to me we have people who want or use this story to make it somehow political. I feel the media in general just wants to create controversy to sell papers. Let the readers stir the pot to create public opinion. Which brings us to the stink raised over the facade grants. Any wrongdoing? Am sure there is some fool out there who would claim to have gotten lung cancer smelling farts at the Norco council meetings.
Once again Bernie published the facts. I saw Congresswoman Wild's statement to the Express Times and She knew nothing about the incident before seeing in The Morning Call.According to this statement Ms. Wild's staff knew nothing about the incident and therefore could not have planted it
To be clear, I have no reason to believe that Sue Wild is responsible for this story. I actually think it is unlikely. According to Nothstein, the anonymous tip was made just 11 days after he had announced his candidacy. At that time, there was a large field of Republicans seeking the nomination, and in a district that stretched to Dauphin County. There was also a large field of Democrats.
One entity is responsible for this story - The Morning Call.
He wasn't just suspended (fired?) by the then chairman of the board. It was a supermajority of the board. He previously had lost a civil trial alleging racial discrimination and harassment. He also took an illegal campaign finance contribution from the biggest contractor with the county. There was no ethics investigation only because Lehigh County has no ethics board.
Before his firing/suspension the Velodrome was being heavily supported by the county which he serves as chairman. He was also receiving either federal or county money for the farm he supposedly works. He claims to reject on principle the idea that taxpstaxpayers should be in the business of subsidizing private ventures. Apparently he believes he is the exception.
There's way too much smoke here, in my opinion. Unlike Browning.
A Supermajority? Stop the presses! You have no idea why and neither does TMC. As for the lawsuit, he lost nothing. Get your facts right before you spout misinformation. The suit was settled.
Shock and Awe
You ready to condemn Nothstein yet? The press won't say it, but it's in the court docs. The victim here was one of the two women he was accused of having inappropriate relations with during the campaign.
https://www.lehighvalleynews.com/allentown/2023-02-15/olympic-champion-marty-nothstein-pleads-guilty-to-misdemeanor-charge-in-stalking-case?fbclid=IwAR3hxQmAwMk24F6MTymb_kOPSbuIntjsGLGB30Gjw2hGhj18eUcGpIcSC6g
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