New Jersey governor scandal

GOLAN OFF FOR VISIT - WITH FEMALE PAL

BY MATTHEW KALMAN IN RISHON LEZION, ISRAEL AND DAVE GOLDINER IN NEW YORK

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
MONDAY, AUGUST 23, 2004

GOLAN CIPEL TOOK OFF yesterday for a vacation with a female friend to escape the New Jersey gay sex scandal. Cipel, 35, gave the slip to reporters tracking the downfall of Gov. Jim McGreevey and headed to the friend's house for a little platonic R&R.

"Golan isn't here. He has a woman friend, a buddy. He went over there and he's at her place," his father, retired cabbie Avraham Cipel, told the Daily News. "He's feeling great. He's getting himself organized. Everything's okay.

"The dad and Cipel's childhood friend Guy Horesh-Gunin identified the woman by her first name, Anat. The two met when Cipel was working as a spokesman for the Israeli Consulate in New York, they said. "Anat and Golan know each other from his first work in the U.S.," said Horesh-Gunin. "They've known each other for six, seven years but there's no romantic involvement."

The getaway comes as a welcome break for Golan Cipel, a former McGreevey aide who fled to his homeland after the governor admitted he was gay and announced his resignation. McGreevey told the world he had a "consensual" relationship with a man who tried to blackmail him into keeping quiet. But Cipel insists he is straight and was sexually harassed by the governor. The Israeli man is considering a lawsuit and plans to return next month to the U.S. Horesh-Gunin said Cipel's mood was "very, very good."

He said Cipel was confident the governor's blackmail claims would be proved false. "So far, the governor's accusations against him are turning out to be untrue," said Horesh-Gunin. He said Cipel had not been contacted by the FBI but would welcome an investigation by the bureau. "Golan would be very happy about an FBI investigation," he said. "It will help him clear his name."

Meanwhile, powerful U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine said he would not pressure the governor to quit before the Nov. 15 date he set. Corzine conceded there is a "crisis of confidence" in the Garden State and said he would consider a future run for governor. "If there is an ability to try to bring some orderliness to it, some independence, a commitment to good government, and people think that I'm the one to best do that, then I'm prepared to do that," Corzine said.

Corzine, who also heads the national Democratic senate campaign committee, told McGreevey he could run in a special election that would be called if the governor stepped down before Sept. 3. But he said it would not be right to force McGreevey's hand.

I WAS CIPEL'S LOVER... ... and he's still in love with the gov, says prof

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, August 19th 2004

BY RALPH R. ORTEGA, ALISON GENDAR and NANCY DILLON DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS With Ellen Tumposky, Matthew Kalman and Ellen Locker

THE MYSTERY MAN who claims to be Golan Cipel's ex-lover said yesterday that not only is the handsome Israeli gay - he's also still in love with Gov. Jim McGreevey.

"Golan says he's not gay? He could have fooled me," Dr. David Miller of Livingston, N.J., told the Daily News yesterday, as he claimed that he had a gay affair with the ex-McGreevey aide.

"We love each other. Is that a crime? We're lovers," said Miller, 51, an openly gay man and divorced father of two.

In a manic, disjointed interview, Miller said that Cipel had made a pillow-talk confession: He still carries a torch for McGreevey.

"Cipel never complained about the governor. They were in love," Miller said outside his home.

Miller also claimed to reporters that he is a CIA operative who takes pills doled out by the intelligence agency to make his skin darker so he can infiltrate unnamed groups.

He offered no mementos, letters or photos as proof of his relationship with Cipel.

He called Cipel a "gold digger" and said he believes the Israeli national was egged on by McGreevey's enemies to claim the governor sexually assaulted him.

The Daily News reported yesterday that an unidentified college professor had reported his affair to the governor's aides.

If true, Miller could wreck Cipel's claims of being a straight man victimized by McGreevey's predatory advances.

Miller - who insisted on speaking Spanish because, he said, he hates the United States - told reporters he met Cipel in Israel through family friends and that he still had a soft spot for him.

"Despite his problems, I'm going to go visit him," said Miller, shirtless and wearing purple shorts.

Cipel, who fled the spotlight for his family's home outside Tel Aviv, denied these latest stories about his sex life. "I never had any relationship with any man, so I don't know what they want from me," Cipel told a close friend yesterday who spoke to The News.

Cipel called Miller's tale "ridiculous and laughable," and said it was now open season on him - "anyone can get up now and claim he had an affair."

A statement from Cipel's media consultant characterized the story as "a blatant lie and manipulation," and part of the governor's ongoing smear campaign.

Miller, a doctor and adjunct professor at Montclair State University, said he had already given a deposition in the federal probe into McGreevey's charges that Cipel tried to blackmail him by claiming sexual harassment.

He said Cipel fled the country "because he was scared when he learned there was a federal investigation into extortion."

Sources told The News that the governor's office took Miller's allegation seriously and was having private investigators check it out.

Yesterday, McGreevey's spokesman Micah Rasmussen denied that. "We couldn't care less if Cipel has ex-boyfriends," Rasmussen said.

Sources said Miller had wanted to get his tale to the governor, and so three days ago contacted New Jersey lawyer Philip Vinick.

"It was a strange call. . . . I know nothing about him, or the truth of what he said," Vinick said.

Miller's own story is reminiscent of McGreevey's coming-out tale. The doctor said he was a happily married man with two children, when, at age 38, he acknowledged he was gay.

"One hundred thousand dollars worth of therapy later and I still don't understand," Miller said.