Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 2, 1992 TAG: 9203020267
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SEATTLE LENGTH: Medium
State Democratic leaders had urged Adams to resign his Senate seat after The Seattle Times report Adams appeared, but the first-term senator refused to step down.
"This is the saddest day of my life," Adams said at a news conference.
Because of an earlier sexual misconduct accusation, Adams already was rated among the most vulnerable of senators whose terms expire this year.
State party leaders said the articles, which covered half the front page and three full inside pages Sunday, were ruinous regardless of whether the women were telling the truth.
Adams, 65, said the accusations were false and refused to let them force him from the office he won in a 1986 upset over Republican Sen. Slade Gorton.
Before joining the Senate, he had served in Congress from 1965 to 1977 and was President Carter's transportation secretary.
The Times story said reporters began hearing accusations of sexual misconduct against Adams in the 3 1/2 years since Kari Tupper, a former congressional aide and family friend of Adams, claimed he drugged her and molested her at his Washington, D.C., home in 1987.
No criminal charges were ever filed, and the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia said the accusation was without merit. Adams insisted it was a fabrication designed to extort money from him.
The Times said that in ensuing months, people contacted the paper to report information or personal experiences to suggest Tupper was telling the truth.
Its articles quoted eight women as saying they had been fondled and kissed at various times in the past two decades. One woman, described as a Democratic Party activist, said that in the early 1970s Adams gave her pills that drugged her, then raped her at her home and left $200 as he departed.
None of the women, who were unwilling to be identified, ever took their allegations to police. Seven signed statements attesting to the truth of their stories, and the eighth said she would.
All acknowledged to the paper they knew they could be required to testify in court should Adams sue the Times. The newspaper said Adams' attorney had threatened to sue the newspaper.
***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on March 3, 1992 in the State edition.
\ Because of an error by The Associated Press, a photograph published in some Monday editions and identified as Sen. Brock Adams, D-Wash., was a photo of Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind.
\
Keywords:
POLITICS
Memo: correction