Sen. Daylin Leach sues woman accusing him of sexual assault, and two #MeToo activists
HARRISBURG — State Sen. Daylin Leach on Monday sued a woman who has accused him of luring her into performing oral sex when she was a teenager and he was an attorney representing her mother in a criminal case nearly 30 years ago.
Leach, a Democrat from Montgomery County, contends that Cara Taylor, along with two Philadelphia-area women, have defamed him by peddling what he calls a “fictional 1991 encounter” of sexual assault, including in online forums. He is seeking at least $50,000 in damages, according to a copy of the suit filed Monday morning in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia.
“The three defendants have sought to achieve their goals by seeking to exploit for their own malicious purposes an important political movement in order to broaden the audience of their false claim among a trusting, unknowing, and unsuspecting public, to wrongfully mobilize and incite unwitting accomplices against plaintiff, and to inflict maximum harm on plaintiff and his family based on accusations they know to be false,” Leach contends in the suit.
Reached for comment, Leach, who has repeatedly denied Taylor’s accusation, said he would not discuss the case until Tuesday. He did not explain why, saying only that he promised his legal team he would be “disciplined.” His lawyer, Joseph R. Podraza Jr. of Sprague & Sprague, did not return a call seeking comment.
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