Despite 8 women’s statements, Bush unlikely to be prosecuted
HOUSTON — Allegations that former President George H.W. Bush inappropriately touched eight women involve potential crimes punishable by fines or jail time, if they had been prosecuted.
All but one of the cases is ineligible under state laws that limit when a prosecution can begin after an alleged crime, and several lawyers interviewed said that it would be difficult to win a conviction against Bush, who has vascular parkinsonism, a rare syndrome that mimics Parkinson’s disease.
“You’re still going to be facing prosecuting a 93year-old man in a wheelchair that’s a former president,” said Toby Shook, a lawyer who previously served as a prosecutor in Dallas. “I doubt if you could ever find a jury that would ever want to convict him.”
Jordana Grolnick, an actress who alleged that Bush groped her rear last year as his wife, Barbara, stood nearby, said she has no plans to report the 41st president to authorities. That appears to be the only incident that hasn’t reached the local statute of limitations on how long a crime can be prosecuted after it occurs.
In all of the cases, the women say Bush touched their buttocks as they stood next to him to take photos.
On Thursday, a 55-yearold woman said Bush grabbed her buttocks during a fundraiser for his re-election campaign in April 1992 in Dearborn, Mich.
“We got closer together for a family photo and it was like ‘Holy crap!'” the woman said. “It was like a gentle squeeze.”
As several women came forward with similar accounts, the woman felt compelled to tell her story. “All the focus has been on ‘He's old.’ OK, but he wasn't old when it happened to me,” she said. “I've been debating what to do about it.”
Bush has issued repeated apologies through a spokesman “to anyone he has offended.”
In a statement last week, Jim McGrath said, “George Bush simply does not have it in his heart to knowingly cause anyone distress, and he again apologizes to anyone he offended during a photo op.”
Actress Heather Lind was the first to accuse Bush of groping her, saying in an Oct. 24 Instagram post that Bush “touched me from behind” and told “a dirty joke” while they posed for a photo at a Houston screening of the AMC TV series “Turn.”
Seven more have come forward since then, including Roslyn Corrigan, who told Time magazine last week that Bush groped her as they took a photo in 2003, when Corrigan was 16.