Another woman is affirming the claims of the ex-girlfriend of Kentucky gubernatorial candidate James Comer (R) that he was abusive to her during college more than 20 years ago.
Marilyn Thomas, who was Comer’s girlfriend at Western Kentucky University in the early 1990s, has publicly alleged that Comer, now the state agriculture commissioner, was physically abusive to her and once drove her to an abortion clinic.
In a letter to the Louisville Courier-Journal on Friday, Jennifer Osborne, a former roommate of Thomas, said an argument between Comer and Thomas once got so bad that Osborne threatened to call the police.
“On one occasion, there was a heated argument between Marilyn Thomas and Jamie Comer and I had to threaten to call the police in order to get him to leave our apartment,” Osborne wrote in the letter.
Osborne and Thomas lived in an off-campus apartment in 1993, according to the Courier-Journal.
Thomas’ allegations against Comer appeared Monday in the Courier-Journal, which published parts of the four-page letter where Thomas claimed Comer had been abusive and helped her to get an abortion when they were dating in the early 1990s. In that story, the Courier-Journal quoted another former roommate, Wendy Curley, who backed Thomas’ account.
“I know she ended up getting pregnant in like October of 1991 and had an abortion in the beginning of November, and I remember him seeing her to the dorm and just dropping her off after they got back from the abortion,” Curley told the Kentucky newspaper.
Comer has denied the claims by both women.
On Friday Thomas published the entire letter on Facebook as well as an explanation of her motives in publishing the letter.
“I can’t wrap my head around being victimized twice but I’m four days into it so, I’m trying to not drown in my new reality. Horrible things have been said about me. I’m taking punches from everywhere,” Thomas wrote on Friday. “At the core of it is still this sad letter that I felt forced to write. Maybe I don’t get it after all. Everything seems upside down because I was pressured to expose my deepest and most private secrets.”
Comer has repeatedly denied the accusations. He also said rival Republican candidate Hal Heiner pushed Thomas to make the accusations in exchange for money. Thomas hasn’t backed down and instead urged Comer to take a lie detector test.
The allegations against Comer come with less than two weeks before the Republican primary election.
