A Colorado Republican state senator who became famous in recent months for saying the “black race” eats too much chicken wanted a fellow Republican lawmaker charged with assault during an altercation inside the state capitol, the Denver Post reported.
But the state representative accused of assault says it was all just a ploy by a powerful gun lobby looking to gain leverage in a possible upcoming primary election.
According to a police report cited by the Denver Post, Sen. Vicki Marble claimed to have been “violently” manhandled by Rep. Cheri Gerou on the floor of the state House of Representatives during a memorial for fallen police officers on May 3.
Marble said Gerou also yelled at her when Gerou allegedly grabbed her by the arms with such force that Marble later needed to see a chiropractor.
“Marble was thinking at the time that Gerou may even hit her,” the report read. “She thought that she was going to ‘get her butt kicked right here on the House floor.'”
Gerou denied the allegations to the Post, saying that she placed her hands on Marble’s hips to move her out of the row of seats when Marble came to the House floor to meet with another lawmaker. It’s against the rules for lawmakers of one chamber to move among the seats of another chamber.
Witnesses to the incidence told the Post that Gerou didn’t yell at Marble, but whispered to her and said the whole encounter was a “nonevent.”
No charges were ever filed against Gerou.
The tale got weirder, however, after the Post contacted Gerou for comment, who laid out an elaborate theory for why she believes the police report was filed in the first place.
Gerou believes Marble was encouraged to file the report by Dudley Brown, the head of pro-firearms lobby Rocky Mountain Gun Owners. Earlier, Gerou had filed an ethics complaint against RMGO lobbyist Joe Neville, alleging that he attempted to influence her vote on a gun bill by threatening to send mailers about her voting record into her district.
Gerou is considering running for state senate in a district in which she’ll face Neville’s father, former Sen. Tim Neville, in a primary.
“Dudley was trying to get a mug shot of me for a primary,” Gerou told the Post. “I’m the Republican he loves to hate and not because of guns but because I support civil unions.”
In a statement emailed to The Daily Caller News Foundation, Brown said Gerou is a “legitimate top-tier target” for the group’s lobbying effort because of what he called a “weak stance” on gun rights issues. And he said he has nothing to do with her dust-up with Marble.
“I have never met Representative Gerou, nor did I have any involvement in her tiff with Senator Marble,” he wrote. “I read about it in the newspapers, just like everyone else.”
Marble is no stranger to controversy. She was criticized for stereotyping the eating habits of blacks and Mexicans during a committee meeting on poverty recently.
Gerou told the Post she was thinking twice about running for Senate because, if she wins, she’ll have to serve with Marble.
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