George Wilber steps down amid sex-abuse scandal

State Rep. George Wilber (D-63) of Colebrook resigned Monday night amid revelations that he paid a woman $100,000 in 2005 to settle a sexual abuse claim out of court.

Wilber, 63, said his resignation was due to health problems related to his kidneys, exacerbated by stress caused by news stories that began to appear last Saturday about the payment. Wilber is on dialysis.

Wilber acknowledged in an interview Monday with The Journal that he paid the woman. She is now in her 40s, and claims Wilber abused her from the time she was 11 until she turned 18.

The story, first reported in Saturday’s Torrington Register-Citizen, stated documents connected to the case were left at the newspaper’s offices Thursday.

"These are nothing but allegations," Wilber said Monday. "I have nothing to hide."

Wilber contended as late as Monday afternoon that he would remain in the race, but changed his mind later in the day. He denied wrongdoing in interviews with numerous reporters, but said Monday that the 2005 settlement was agreed upon to avoid a more expensive legal battle.

"A settlement claim was probably less expensive than fighting the false accusations," Wilber said. "This could have been a long-term court case."

The Hartford Courant quoted Wilber’s attorney, David A. Moraghan of Torrington, saying the claim was "political blackmail."

Wilber said he could not discuss the specific allegations of the case because the settlement required both parties to remain silent. "I can’t discuss the details, but this has caused emotional turmoil, both in my family and in the accuser’s."

A decision has not yet been made regarding legal action over the release of the settlement documents, Wilber said. "That will be a matter that will be discussed with legal counsel."

The Register-Citizen did not report a source of the documents in question, but House Speaker James Amann’s spokesman, Larry Perosino, said Tuesday that Amann was briefed on the Wilber matter back in 2002, before Amann became majority leader and house speaker.

"It preceded the election," Perosino said. "George Wilber was in his first run for the legislature at that time and Jim Amann was not even majority leader at the time."

Perosino said then-House Speaker Moira Lyons investigated the allegations against Wilber, interviewing both the candidate and his accuser in 2002. The only request by the accuser at that time was for the Wilber campaign to have no contact with her. "George obviously denied all the allegations and the woman was not very specific about what occurred and gave no indication she wanted to seek criminal charges or file a lawsuit at that time."

He reportedly denied wrongdoing then. No criminal charges were ever filed. A source familiar with his 2004 campaign said a woman did threaten the campaign with allegations that year but was not taken seriously by campaign staff.

"This information appears to have been purposely leaked to the media on the eve of an election, which strongly suggests it was done to achieve maximum political impact," Amann said in a written statement.

The timing of the leak was particularly damaging to Democrats because it is now too late to put a replacement candidate on the ballot.

Republican State Party Chairman Chris Healy called for Wilber to resign when the news broke last Saturday.

His Republican challenger for the 63rd District seat, John Rigby, also of Colebrook, said Monday that he was surprised by the charges and that his campaign had nothing to do with the leaking of documents. "We don’t have any idea how this came about," Rigby said. "I learned about it when I read the paper Saturday morning and I’ve been following it as it’s come out."

Rigby said he does not want to make the sexual abuse settlement part of his campaign. "We’re going to keep going door to door, talking about jobs, taxes and the economy," he said. "This is not going to change anything about our campaign."

The 63rd District includes the towns of Barkhamsted, Canaan (Falls Village), North Canaan, Colebrook, Hartland, Norfolk and Winchester. Wilber was first selectman of Colebrook for 19 years and was secretary of agriculture under Gov. Ella Grasso. He was running for his fourth term as a state representative.

Wilber is married and has three children. He lives and works on his family’s farm in Colebrook.