DA: No Credible Case Against Gore

Environmentalists, breathe a sigh of relief: According to prosecutors, former vice president and global warming warrior Al Gore is not a “crazed sex poodle” after all.

On Friday, Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schrunk announced that Gore had been cleared of any misconduct in the sexual assault case alleged by a local massage therapist. Molly Hagerty had accused the one-time presidential candidate of abusing her when she performed a massage in his room at the Hotel Lucia in 2006. Specifically, she claimed Gore begged for her to help with the “release of his second chakra,” then attempted to mount her as the pair lay on a bed listening – at Gore’s request – to a song by pop artist Pink. Prosecutors said there was not enough credible evidence to seek criminal charges.

Although the encounter occurred four years ago, the story came to national attention only in June via the National Enquirer. Hagerty had originally contacted police in 2006 but did not appear at three scheduled meetings with investigators. An editor for the Portland Tribune said the paper had looked into the allegations for a full year beginning in 2007 but could not corroborate enough information to justify publishing Hagerty’s claims. In 2009, Hagerty delivered a detailed statement to the police, from which the Enquirer based its reporting. (It also apparently paid Hagerty for the interview, according to the DA’s report.)

On June 30, police reopened the investigation, citing mistakes in handling Hagerty’s initial complaints. In an eight-page memo released July 30 – about a week after police interviewed Gore in San Francisco – Senior Deputy District Attorney Don Rees outlines several deficiencies in the case. A pair of pants Hagerty said she was wearing the night of her encounter with Gore tested negative for seminal fluid. Witness testimony contradicted Hagerty’s description of being visibly “in shock” after the incident. She also failed a polygraph test and never provided investigators with relevant medical records. And Hagerty, a redhead, later told officers that she called Gore right after the incident and told him to “dream of redheaded women” – which goes against her assertion of being completely frightened of the man she referred to as a “big lummox.”

For these reasons, Rees and the Portland Police Bureau found that “a sustainable criminal case does not exist.”

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