SALT LAKE CITY — Dr. Eric Knight doesn't agree on much with his ex-wife, Cheryl Maher, the woman who disclosed she hot-tubbed in the nude as a 15-year-old with Kevin Garn 25 years ago, leading him to resign as Utah House majority leader.
But one thing that they do agree about is that Knight has some key things in common with Garn, which is why Maher may have gone public with her story.
Knight says his similarity to Garn is that Maher has been trying to destroy him personally and professionally, and that she seeks to blame both men for her bad decisions.
Maher says Knight and Garn are both liars, both abused her and both had affairs with young girls — and she has decided to fight them now. "I married someone who was just like Kevin Garn," she said.
Knight's and Maher's stories differ widely about Maher's history with Garn, which of them actually sought money from him and what kind of abuse occurred.
Knight said Maher has tried to destroy him professionally since they divorced three years ago. Knight, a medical doctor in Derry, N.H., has since remarried and has custody of their three children. (Maher also had another child from a previous marriage.) He said the state medical board and Derry police investigated allegations she made against him and cleared him.
Knight said she threatened to keep making allegations unless he gave more concessions out of their divorce decree, "She's getting very frustrated because none of it is working," Knight said. "So that's one of the reasons I think she is lashing out" at Garn. "It is my hope that the press and public will quickly stop enabling her in these destructive efforts, and will leave the Garn family and others involved in peace. I think Kevin (Garn) has paid his dues for this many times over, and she's basically just using him because she's angry and frustrated."
Maher, however, said, "Eric Knight is a liar." Since their divorce, "he has stalked me and perpetrated lies about me" that cost her custody. She says police are still investigating some of her complaints about him.
Maher sent an e-mail Monday to explain why she went public with the Garn incident. "Over 25 years ago, I was saddled with a secret and indiscretion that would send my self-esteem, ability to trust and innocence spiraling," she wrote. "For the past 25 years, I have done 'what was best' for Kevin Garn, the Garn family … and desires of several other very selfish people. … Now finally, I am doing what is best for Cheryl."
Knight portrays things differently. He says that until a few years ago, Maher considered Garn a friend who had even given her money during a tough time before they were married.
"Actually on our honeymoon out there (to Utah), we stopped by and she introduced me to the Garns saying this was a family she knew and that she had been close with. She kind of hinted that when she was a teenager, she had a crush on him," but she would not mention the hot-tubbing incident until years later, Knight said.
He said things changed when she was pregnant with their son in 2000, had kidney stones and became addicted to pain medication that she took for it. Maher says she became addicted after learning that her husband had an affair with a patient, was physically abusive to her and had an affair with a minor before they were married.
Regardless, as she talked to a counselor to overcome addiction, she mentioned the hot-tubbing.
Knight said, "It was something that she felt guilty about because she felt like when she was 15, she had an affair with a married man. The counselor said no, this wasn't an affair, you were a child, you were a victim here. So she started changing her thinking to: 'I'm a victim.' "
Both agree Maher started blaming Garn for problems she had with drugs, a car accident when she was driving (where a friend was killed) and mental problems. Still, Knight said Maher wasn't going to act on it — until she found out Garn was running for Congress.
"Her position was that he had never made things right with her. She didn't know if he had repented appropriately … so she was talking with me about it, and with our bishop. Our bishop contacted Salt Lake, and the response we got back was that they had looked into it, and on their end everything had been handled appropriately," Knight said.
Maher said she tried to talk to her bishop about her husband. In 2008 she wrote to LDS President Thomas S. Monson about Garn. She received a brief reply letter from church headquarters that the matter would be reviewed.
LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter said, "Legal requirements concerning priest-penitent privilege prevents the church from talking about the specifics of meetings between members and ecclesiastical leaders." He said Maher's 2008 letter was referred to local leaders, and said the church would review to see if any further action is appropriate.
Knight said Maher was resentful in 2002 that church leaders didn't contact her to see how she was coping. He said Maher and her sister contacted the media and called the Utah attorney general to investigate statutes of limitation and the possibility of a civil suit.
Knight said when a reporter called Garn to ask about the allegations, "It was the first (Garn) heard about it. He called Cheryl, and said, 'What is going on? I didn't realize there was a problem. I thought everything was fine between us for all these years.' "
It was the weekend before the 2002 GOP primary, but Garn stopped campaigning to fly East to meet Maher and Knight. "He dropped everything, all the campaigning. He and his wife flew out here, and we sat down with the bishop," Knight said. "When we finished it was all hugs and smiles and everybody was happy and everything was fine."
After Garn lost the election, Knight said Maher started thinking of "all these other problems she was then pinning on Kevin. So she thought some further restitution was appropriate. She contacted them. They were surprised. It was months after the campaign."
Knight said Garn offered $20,000, but Maher wanted $150,000. While the payment included a nondisclosure agreement, Knight said Garn gave it "in the spirit of restitution."
Maher, however, said it was Knight who was pushing for money, and it was him who pushed for the $150,000 instead of $20,000, not her. As evidence, she kept many emails from the period where the Garn family was dealing primarily with Knight, not her.
Garn has not responded to Deseret News calls since his admission before the Legislature Thursday that he had been in a hot tub nude with Maher. He said that no touching occurred.
Knight said Maher is looking for scapegoats. Maher acknowledged making mistakes of her own but said going public about the hot-tubbing is part of trying to put her life back together.
She said in her e-mail on Monday, "It has been a long and painful road as I have put the broken pieces of my life back together. The inward struggles have been daunting and they have been many. At the end of the healing, I knew what had to be done" — and that was to go public, she wrote.
"Some of you may never understand why I had the need to, in part, 'scream this from the rooftops.' The truth is that it doesn't matter who understands," she wrote. "I did what I have done for my children, for my family and for every woman who has lived through the mental, emotional, sexual or physical abuse at the hands of others."
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