Saturday, June 05, 2010

McCollum overruled staff warnings about Rekers

Just in case you missed this one, allow me to present it again. It would seem that Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum's staff tried to warn him against hiring the now disgraced George Rekers as an expert witness in the state's attempt to defend it's no-gays allowed adoption law.

And he overruled them.

One wonders what he will do should he win the governorship of Florida:

Disgraced psychologist George Rekers was labeled a ``right-wing, religious-based'' expert witness and rejected for months by state attorneys defending Florida's gay adoption ban.

But when they couldn't find anyone else to replace him on the witness stand, Attorney General Bill McCollum overruled his trial attorneys, quickly hired Rekers, and paid him twice his agreed upon contract with no questions asked, according to documents released this week by McCollum's office.

Rekers, a psychiatry professor at the University of South Carolina, has been stripped of his credibility after reports surfaced that he hired a gay male escort to give him nude ``sexual'' massages and accompany him on a recent European vacation.

The adoption ban case, in which the state paid Rekers more than $120,000 to testify on the ``negative effects'' of gay parenting, has been ruled unconstitutional and the state is appealing.

The Rekers fee was almost a third of what the state has spent on the gay adoption ban lawsuit to date -- $383,000. Half the cost has gone to attorneys fees; the rest to general expenses, including $120,000 to Rekers.

Meanwhile, records obtained by The Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times, show that despite repeated objections from the Department of Children and Families, the attorney general agreed to advance Rekers $60,900 to get him to take the case and another $59,700 a year later as the case dragged on.

The article continues here.

Related posts:

Latest on Rekers scandal: Media allegedly listened in on phone conversation between him and escort

The George Rekers escort scandal goes on and on

George Rekers talks but avoids the BIG question as 'rentboy' scandal continues

Family Research Council founder travels with a 'rentboy' - scandal brewing in religious right circles


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