ST. PETERSBURG (AP) — Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll is speaking out about accusations she may have been romantically involved with a female aide.
In an interview with 10 News in Tampa Bay, Carroll said that black women who look like her “don't engage in relationships like that.”
She also notes she has been married for 29 years and that her children and husband know “the type of woman I am.”
The accusation is being made by former Carroll aide Carletha Cole, who was arrested last October on charges that she gave an illegally taped conversation with another Carroll aide to anewspaper reporter.
Cole, 51, claims in a court filing that she walked in on Carroll and a top female aide in a “compromising position” in Carroll's office.
Carroll has denied the accusation.
Cole’s attorney, Steven R. Andrews, is denying she made the recording.
Meanwhile, The Miami Herald reported that after the recording surfaced on the Florida Times Union website last September, Cole, was fired as a senior program analyst for “conduct unbecoming.”
Illegally recording a conversation is a third-degree felony and it carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.
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