• Posted on Monday, November 2, 2009
  • Bookmark and Share
  • email
  • |
  • print
  • |
  • rss

tool name

close
tool goes here

California ex-lawmaker's sexually explicit tape keeps playing

California Assemblyman Mike Duvall, R-Yorba Linda, brags on tape about two simultaneous affairs. WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT.

Sign up for email newsletters now!

Sign up for email newsletters now!

Never miss a McClatchy story

More on this Story

An attorney for the utility company lobbyist identified in media reports as ex-Assemblyman Mike Duvall's mistress issued a statement today saying that the woman is exploring legal remedies for the personal and professional damages caused by allegations that she had an affair with the former lawmaker.

Duvall, who is married, resigned in September after a recording surfaced in which he is heard bragging about having sex with two women. Sempra Energy lobbyist Heidi Dejong Barsuglia, whose employer said she denied having an affair, was identified in media reports and in a complaint to the Fair Political Practices Commission as one of the women referred to in the tape. Duvall has also since said his resignation was not an admission that he had an affair, but a reflection of "inappropriate storytelling."

Barsuglia said in the statement that the ordeal has been "a professional and personal nightmare."

"I did nothing whatsoever illegal or unethical with former Assemblyman Duvall or anyone else. What is shocking to me and my family is that anyone would have taken seriously the statements of someone boasting about his alleged exploits or even believed for a moment that they were true," she said in the statement.

The statement came shortly following an announcement that the U.S. Attorney's Office would not file charges in connection with the comments. The California Attorney General's Office and the Fair Political Practices Commission also said there was not sufficient evidence to investigate whether any laws were broken by the actions described in the tapes.

Read more at SacBee.com

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

We welcome comments. To post one, you must sign in using either your McClatchyDC login or your login for Facebook, Twitter or Disqus. Just click the appropriate box below.

Please keep your comment civil, short and to the point. Obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. If you find a comment abusive or inappropriate, please flag it for the moderator by placing your cursor on the comment, then clicking the "flag" link that appears. Thanks for your participation.

POLITICS & GOVERNMENT BLOG

Planet Washington

"Planet Washington" is a group blog by journalists in McClatchy's Washington Bureau. Send a story suggestion.