"Sex Poodle" Case Gets Curbed

JULY 30--Struggling with his emotions during a police interview last week, former Vice President Al Gore vehemently denied an Oregon woman’s claim that he fondled and groped her during a 2006 massage at a Portland hotel.

In a July 22 interview with cops, Gore--who was accompanied by two lawyers--was asked about masseuse Molly Hagerty’s claim that he forced her to touch an “intimate area of his body.” According to investigators, “Gore’s face became flushed and he stammered slightly as he responded, ‘Absolutely not!’”

The Portland Police Bureau’s report of their interview with Gore (a copy of which you’ll find below) was included in 180 pages of investigative documents released today after prosecutors announced that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Gore for the purported sex assault.

In a strange January 2009 statement to police, Hagerty, 54, described Gore as a "crazed sex poodle" who pinned her to a bed in his hotel suite, forcibly French kissed her, and groped her breasts. Additionally, she claimed Gore had a "violent temper as well as extremely dictatorial commanding attitude besides his Mr. Smiley Global Warming concern persona."

Hagerty told cops that Gore had shoved her hand “under the sheet to his pubic hair area, my fingers brushing against his penis and firmly planted my hand on his pubic crest region.” She told of being petrified during the encounter and how she had to bolt the room to avoid being raped.

When asked by Portland cops if he had any reason to believe Hagerty was “uncomfortable or fearful,” Gore said he “had to contain his anger” when he learned of this claim since he recalled her having a “particularly pleasant demeanor…and not appearing upset in any way.” Gore added that he was “completely baffled” by Hagerty’s claim that she fled the room visibly distressed and shaken.

At one point during his police interview, Gore said that Hagerty’s allegations--first aired in the National Enquirer--angered him because of the resulting “pain it caused him and his family.” Cops noted that Gore “told us how he struggled to control the emotion raised by the reports and it became apparent he was struggling with this as we spoke.”

Included in the other records released today was a report detailing a July 7 interview with Hagerty. During that session, Hagerty disclosed that she had previously failed a polygraph test arranged by one of her many previous attorneys. Before providing this information, Hagerty asked investigators to stop taking notes because she did not want the admission memorialized in a police report.

Hagerty also added a bizarre new detail to her account, telling police that she called Gore’s hotel room after the alleged incident and reminded him about the need to drink extra water post-massage. She then told him to “dream of red headed women tonight,” according to a police report excerpted here. Concerned that he would complain to hotel staff about her, Hagerty, who has auburn colored hair, explained that she “called him so he would take the event ‘to the dream world’ and, therefore, be less likely to raise a complaint with the hotel.”

The records also reveal that Hagerty refused to answer police questions about whether she was paid for her cooperation with the Enquirer.