Ex-staffer claims Florida lieutenant governor had lesbian affair with aide

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Even as she becomes a prominent African-American surrogate for the Mitt Romney presidential campaign, and takes the spotlight leading a state task force on the controversial “Stand Your Ground” law, Florida Lt. Governor Jennifer Carroll is now fighting a sensational scandal involving an alleged lesbian affair with an aide. Carroll, meanwhile, claims the accusations are from a disgruntled fired employee who is trying to embarrass her former boss to avoid the consequences of her own crime.

From the Miami Times:

A former staffer of Florida Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll said she was fired last year after she caught her former boss and another female aide in “a compromising position” in Carroll’s office, according to a court filing.

The ex-office aide, Carletha Cole, 49, was arrested last year on charges she illegally leaked taped conversations of Carroll’s staff to a Florida newspaper reporter. Defending herself against the charges, Cole alleges in a court filing the lieutenant governor fired her shortly after she walked in on the Republican leader and the staff member in Carroll’s capitol office. The allegation came to light in a July 5 court filing in response to a motion by prosecutors that certain records in the case be made confidential.

“When she entered the office, she found the Lieutenant Governor and her travel aide, Beatriz Ramos, in what can only be described as a compromising position,” according to a motion filed by Cole’s lawyer, Stephen Webster.

Cole, who is also an ordained minister, has for months been publicly calling for Carroll’s impeachment, on grounds that the 52-year-old married mother of three adult children practices “nepotism” and misuses her office “for sexual escapades.” Carroll, Florida’s first black female lieutenant governor, denied the charges in a statement to the Florida Times Union, accusing Cole of trying to use the allegations to get the charges against her dropped.

Republican women’s group is is now defending Carroll, denouncing Cole as a “charlatan” and a Barack Obama supporter.