By PHILIP ELLIOTT and HOLBROOK MOHR
SHREVEPORT, La. Sharon Bialek's former boyfriend said Monday the then-couple spent an evening with Herman Cain in the 1990s. That countered the GOP presidential candidate's earlier statements that he never met the woman who has accused him of inappropriate sexual behavior more than a decade ago.
"Sharon indeed did meet and spend time with Mr. Cain," Victor Jay Zuckerman said.
In turn, Cain's attorney, Lin Wood, insisted that his client "doesn't recall Ms. Bialek."
Zuckerman, a Louisiana pediatrician, corroborated some of Bialek's story with attorney Gloria Allred at his side just as the firestorm around Cain seemed to be subsiding since the first disclosures on Oct. 30 rocked Cain's campaign. There hadn't been any new information disclosed in the past week about Cain or the accusations, and plans for a joint news conference by his accusers seemed increasingly unlikely.
But, on Monday, Zuckerman echoed Bialek's account of the two of them meeting Cain and spending the evening with him in Chicago in 1997 at the National Restaurant Association convention. He said that Cain then invited them to an after-dinner party in a hotel suite.
"At that party, Mr. Cain engaged both of us in conversation," Zuckerman said.
Later that year, Zuckerman said, Bialek told him that Cain inappropriately touched her when, at Zuckerman's suggestion, she met him in Washington to seek employment help.
"When she returned, she was upset," Zuckerman said. "She said that something had happened and that Mr. Cain had touched her in an inappropriate manner. She said she handled it and didn't want to talk about it any further."
More: Victor Zuckerman, Sharon Bialek Ex-Boyfriend, Talks Sexual Harassment Allegations Against Herman Cain