Cain Contradicted by Accuser's Former Boyfriend

Herman Cain spent an entire evening with Sharon Bialek, the woman the candidate claimed he never met, says her former beau. "Sharon indeed did meet and spend time with Mr. Cain," Victor Jay Zuckerman said at a press conference yesterday. Zuckerman, a Louisiana pediatrician, said he and Bialek socialized with Cain in 1997 at a National Restaurant Association convention in Chicago. Cain then invited them to an after-dinner party in a hotel suite, where Cain "engaged both of us in conversation," he added. Later that year, Bialek told Zuckerman that Cain inappropriately touched her when she met him in Washington—at Cain's suggestion—for employment help.

"When she returned, she was upset," said Zuckerman. Cain reiterated yesterday that he had never met Bialek. But Cain's lawyer said the candidate may have met Bialek, but not recalled meeting her. "He doesn't recall Ms. Bialek," said attorney Lin Wood. "What he does know is that he has never done such a thing as she alleges." Cain's wife has dismissed Bialek's claim that Cain put his hand up her skirt because "that wasn't part of his being." At least three other women have claimed that Cain behaved inappropriately toward them. (More Herman Cain 2012 stories.)