McGreevey continues to amaze.
Six months after announcing that he would resign from the Governorship of New Jersey due to an homosexual affair and his announcement that he was a "Gay American," McGreevey finds himself in trouble once again, or as Action News would have us believe.
All when McGreevey was trying to reenter public life in some fashion.
Last night, Action News, Channel 6 in Philadelphia, aired an exclusive investigative report last night.
But the rumors surrounding McGreevey will not end. Action News reporter Chad Pradelli has uncovered some exclusive details.
Myra Rosa and her story hung over McGreevey's quest for the governorship. Her story begins in Woodbridge, where McGreevey served as Mayor, and stretched to Florida. It ends in Philadelphia.
Aurora Gomez claims her daughter Myra Rosa, a New Jersey prostitute, had a two-year relationship with McGreevey while he was mayor of Woodbridge and beginning his first run for governor in 1997.
"How long did she say she have a relationship with the governor?"
Aurora Gomez/MOTHER: "She says we've been going out like 2 years."
"Would the governor pay her?"
"That's one thing she never told me. She never ever told me that he give her money for sex."
Myra Rosa's credibility can certainly be questioned. The heroin addict was arrested for prostitution, drugs, and trespassing more than a half dozen times. Rumors of the relationship began surfacing in 1995 when Rosa made claims to Sayreville police in a taped interview obtained by Action News.
Cop: "So you have a kid?"
Rosa: "Yea."
Cop: "Where are they at?"
Rosa: "With my ex-husband's family. When my labor pains started from my last baby, McGreevey was with me, the mayor. He was with me in a hotel. I can tell his wife what her bed looks like what her cat looks like."
In the final weeks of the 1997 campaign against Christine Todd Whitman, the prostitute became a huge concern. One campaign source says when questioned by advisors about the allegations that McGreevey had a sexual relationship with Myra Rosa, McGreevey denied them. But sources inside the campaign said they and others on the campaign were still worried the rumors might be true.
"I used to see him a couple of times - a white van, after dark, going in front of my house. And she goes, 'That's Woodbridge mayor picking me up.'"
The fear was the rumors, true or not, could end any chance of winning. The source says the decision was made to send Rosa to Florida.
"She came to the house 4 o'clock in the afternoon. She goes, 'Mommy pack me some clothes. I'm leaving.' I said, 'Where are you going?' 'Oh, I'm going on vacation. I'm going to Florida for two weeks.'"
John Ostrander tells Action News he escorted and paid for Rosa's trip to Florida to escape media scrutiny. He owned the Lucky 7 Bail Bonds company in Perth Amboy. It is the same company that often secured Rosa's bail during her legal troubles. He said Myra Rosa was a dear friend and he took her to Florida of his own free will, not on behalf of the McGreevey campaign. Gomez remembers her daughter's parting words:
"If you say something my life's going to be in danger and I don't know what happens to you and my brothers."
Chad Pradelli: "She said she thought her life would be in danger?"
"Yes, so that's why I kept it quiet and didn't open my mouth."
According to the Newark Star Ledger, a reporter for the paper confronted McGreevey about Rosa's allegations after a gubernatorial debate. The report states McGreevey burst into tears and vehemently denied them. Two days later, the paper said it received a retraction from a Jersey City lawyer representing Rosa.
McGreevey lost the 1997 race but ran again in 2001. Again, Rosa became a concern. At the time she was working the streets of Philadelphia. But this time she wouldn't be a problem, she overdosed in a drug house on Rutledge Street.
The April 2001 autopsy confirmed she died of a drug overdose. McGreevey went on to win the governorship.
[snip]
So, what are we to believe? I have always heard the following rumors: that McGreevey was gay, that the wife knew it and their marriage was one of convenience, that McGreevey's first marriage ended abruptly in the early 1990 due to the fact that he was gay, and I could go on. All of those rumors seemed confirmed by last summer's revelations.
And now this? Are we to believe this? Should we even care, now that McGreevey is gone?