Jeff Perry, GOP House Candidate, Haunted By Allegations That He Ignored Illegal Strip Search Of Teenage Girls

Jeff Perry, a Republican congressional candidate in Massachusetts, is facing a wave of criticism over allegations that he oversaw and ignored illegal strip-searches of teenage girls while serving as a police sergeant in Wareham, Massachusetts.

Scott Flanagan, the officer who conducted the strip search and a similar assault on a different girl in 1992, admitted to the crimes and was convicted in 1993 of civil rights violations and indecent assault of a child. But Perry initially said that he was in a position to see and hear everything that happened that night and that the assault never occurred.

According to the Boston Globe:

The matter intensified this week when one of the victims released a public statement denouncing the U.S. House hopeful and his version of the story.

Lisa Allen, the woman who was 14 years old in 1991 when she was assaulted by Flanagan, had this to say about the incident:

"Perry knew what Flanagan did, he had to hear me screaming and crying," Allen wrote. "Instead of helping me, Jeff Perry denied anything happened."

Perry, now running as a GOP candidate in the 10th Congressional District of Massachusetts, recently claimed that had no knowledge of the searches when they took place.

"I didn't know they were happening. If I did I would have put handcuffs on him and locked him up myself," Perry said.