Attorney: Lowry In ‘Deep Denial’

Gov. Mike Lowry is in “deep denial” and needs intensive counseling for sexual harassment issues, anger management therapy and evaluation for alcohol abuse, the lawyer for former deputy press secretary Susanne Albright said Monday.

Lowry and others in the governor’s office and top management posts will undergo more sexual harassment sensitivity training, but the rest of attorney Larry Finegold’s suggestions are unnecessary, replied Lowry’s spokesman, Jordan Dey.

Finegold said in an interview that Albright is out of state recuperating from a hospitalization and the stress of a mixed report from harassment investigator Mary Alice Theiler. Albright has received “an outpouring of support” from the public, he said.

The report says many of Albright’s allegations about the governor’s behavior could not be independently verified and that Lowry’s actions did not constitute sexual harassment. Theiler did not, however, exonerate the governor and said some of his behavior needs correcting.

Albright has not yet decided whether to pursue legal action, Finegold said. That decision may be made in the next two weeks, he said.

“The question becomes ‘Can you endure going through this all over again?’ ” he said.

But in the meantime, Lowry needs help, he said.

Theiler has made it clear that the governor wasn’t cleared and yet he persists in seeing it that way, Finegold said.

“In light of Theiler’s comments, the governor’s assertion that he did absolutely nothing wrong shows he is clearly in deep denial and that is what we have been talking about from the outset,” the lawyer said.

“What he needs is not a day or two of harassment training (as he had last fall), but individual counseling by a nationally recognized expert on sexual harassment. He also needs to talk to someone about anger management and he needs to be evaluated for alcohol treatment issues.”