Orlando Sentinel

U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson

Congressma­n’s attorney says allegation­s ‘are simply false’

- By Steven Lemongello Staff Writer

is accused of domestic abuse, but the lawmaker’s attorney strongly denies the allegation­s.

The mother of U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson’s children alleges she was the victim of two decades of domestic abuse at the hands of the congressma­n, including four incidents in Orange County and Virginia where authoritie­s were called, according to a report in Politico.

Alan Grayson’s attorney, Mark NeJame, strongly denied the allegation­s.

“This is just more of the same,” NeJame told the Orlando Sentinel. “There are simply false allegation­s, and she’s a troubled person . ... In fact, every single fact [shows] she’s the one who caused trouble in the home.”

In the wake of the allegation­s, two liberal groups pulled their support for Grayson, DOrlando, in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate and asked that he donate their contributi­ons to domestic abuse victims.

In Philadelph­ia at the Democratic National Convention, Grayson got into a confrontat­ion with a Politico reporter on Tuesday over the report. A video posted by the online outlet shows Grayson saying a reporter had shoved him and threatenin­g the reporter with arrest.

Lolita Grayson could not be reached for comment.

The allegation­s are the latest chapter in a years-long battle between Alan and Lolita Grayson that has played out in public and the courts.

Last year, a circuit court judge annulled their marriage after finding that Lolita Grayson was still married when the couple married in 1990. Lolita Grayson claimed she got a divorce in Guam in 1980 but could not prove it.

The annulment then led to court hearings about the custody of four of their children, with Grayson claiming Lolita’s behavior was “bizarre, aggressive and inappropri­ate.”

Lolita Grayson sent Politico four reports, two from Fairfax County, Va., in 1994 and 1999 and two from Orange County in 2005 and 2014, in which she

contends Grayson abused her.

The Orange sheriff ’s office verified its two reports. But the purported Virginia police accounts could not be verified by Fairfax County Police because of what they called a lack of research resources.

No arrests or charges were made in any of the incidents.

In an Orange sheriff ’s report from November 2005, Lolita claimed her husband threatened to kill her in front of their 10-year-old daughter at their home near Windermere and told a deputy there was “a history of domestic violence with her and her husband, from when they used to live in Virginia.”

In the 1999 Virginia report, she alleged that Alan Grayson hit her on the arm and threw her to the floor in 1994 and that he “hit her on the back of the head with a large rock.”

In the 1994 report, she alleged that Grayson “has assaulted her daily during their four-year marriage.” She declined to press charges in both Virginia incidents.

The latest allegation, from Orange County in 2014, was well-publicized at the time. Lolita was granted a temporary domestic violence injunction after she accused Alan of pushing her during a confrontat­ion at their home near Windermere, but she later withdrew her request after the Sheriff ’s Office decided not to pursue criminal charges.

On Tuesday, the Progressiv­e Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America, who had endorsed Alan Grayson for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, both withdrew their endorsemen­ts. Grayson is facing U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, in the Aug. 30 primary.

“After today’s revelation­s of years of police reports about allegation­s of domestic abuse involving Alan Grayson, we are no longer willing to support and are formally withdrawin­g our endorsemen­t of him,’’ the groups said in a joint statement, though they made no other endorsemen­t.

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