Scott Lee Cohen sold himself to Democratic primary voters as a shining example of integrity, transparency and business acumen. “Scott is prepared to bring his professional and life experience to the office of lieutenant governor,” declared his campaign Web site.
From the earliest stages of his campaign, Cohen says, he was up front about two issues rarely seen in a successful political candidate: His business as a pawnbroker and domestic battery charges, later dismissed, involving a girlfriend.
But his vague account of the battery case fell apart a day after his Democratic primary victory when an examination of the police record portrayed a more troubling picture than what the candidate offered.
His ex-girlfriend, it turned out, is a convicted prostitute. And she accused him of holding a knife to her throat, a detail in the police report that Cohen didn’t disclose when questioned earlier last week.
Now, a deeper examination of Cohen’s past reveals many other instances where there are inconsistencies between his statements and public records.
He has been sued dozens of times for back taxes, had trouble paying his mortgage and has been cited numerous times by the city for building code violations and failing to pay water bills.
His ex-wife accused him of being a serial cheat who shot up illegally obtained steroids, physically abused her and failed to pay child support even as he spent millions of dollars of his own money to get elected.
Democratic leaders got a serious case of buyer’s remorse and called on him to quit the November ticket.
Illinois is no stranger to odd political twists, but Cohen may have set some unofficial speed record for landing on the griddle and appearing to disillusion supporters.
“I want my vote back,” complained Steven Goldberg of Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, who said he had been impressed by Cohen’s platform. “I’m very upset about it.”
In the pecking order of statewide political offices, the lieutenant governor’s post is usually an afterthought, and Cohen’s rookie candidacy got little scrutiny from politicians and the news media because of it.
On the campaign trail, Cohen downplayed his history as a pawnbroker while stressing roles as a “green” entrepreneur and the leader of a citizens’ movement to force former Gov. Rod Blagojevich from office.
But records, interviews and an examination of Cohen’s explanations raise many questions.
Q: Cohen has portrayed himself as a successful and forward thinking entrepreneur whose expertise could help the state recover from recession. Asked about tax troubles, he says he has satisfied government liens against him. What is the record?
A: His experience centers around a pawn shop business that Cohen and his brothers inherited from their father and later squabbled over in court. Cohen also has trouble paying taxes, with more than $324,000 in federal and state tax liens filed against his businesses since 2001. Records indicate that most, but not all, of that amount has been paid.
Over the years, he has had trouble paying his mortgages and other bills, according to Cook County court records. Records show there are more than a dozen cases filed against Cohen and his companies. He has also been sued by the city for building code violations and failing to pay water bills, according to a spokeswoman for Chicago’s Law Department. One Cohen property was written up for 15 dangerous and hazardous building code violations.
One lawsuit was filed by the owner of a Hammond, Ind., building looking for $40,000 in back rent for Cohen-connected pawn businesses.
Q: Cohen is not a well-known political name in Illinois. When and how did he get the political bug?
A: Cohen has said his campaign was an outgrowth of Rod Must Resign, a civic group he formed to pressure Blagojevich to quit. State records show that Cohen founded Rod Must Resign on Jan. 2, 2009, three weeks before state lawmakers ousted Blagojevich. The group raised no contributions and spent no money, according to a report it filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections.
There are indications Cohen was putting out political feelers even before he formed the anti-Blagojevich group. Chicago Ald. Willie Cochran, 20th, said that he and Cohen used the same political consultants and that they urged Cohen to meet with him in 2008. The alderman said that Cohen came to the ward around Christmas 2008 and delivered toys and turkeys and later attended a Cochran fundraiser.
“My experience with him has been a positive one,” Cochran said. “Everything in the newspapers is news to me,” Cochran said.
Ald. Bernard Stone, 50th, said he was one of the first elected officials to endorse Cohen’s candidacy. “I didn’t know about his background other than when I talked to him. I liked his ideas. I liked his job fair idea. He was certainly ahead of the field on that.”
Stone said his opinion of Cohen had changed somewhat in the last few days, but not enough to think that Cohen should drop out of the lieutenant governor’s race.
“I am forgiving of people with indiscretions,” said Stone. “I happen to think he’s a good guy and he’s on the right track.”
Q: Cohen’s campaign Web site highlighted his founding of an “eco-friendly” cleaning supply company. How is that doing?
A: Cohen’s Green Cleaning Supplies, LLC was incorporated by Cohen on Dec. 17, 2008, according to state records. In a recent interview with the Tribune, Cohen said he was no longer involved on a day to day basis with his pawn shops and was instead personally running the cleaning firm. “I believe that green technology is a tremendous way to stimulate our economy to put people back to work, to create jobs,” Cohen said, adding that his firm distributes cleaning concentrates made by an Illinois based firm called PortionPac Corp.
But Marvin Klein, the CEO of PortionPac, had a different story. “I believe he was once there in our office a year ago,” Klein recalled. “I might have shaken his hand. He came to talk to our sales manager about a business he was opening, but nothing ever came of it. I can tell you for sure he is not a distributor.”
Q: Cohen said he went out of his way to be open during his campaign about a 2005 domestic battery charge leveled by his then girlfriend. If so, then how has the incident erupted with such fury months after he first publicly mentioned it?
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A: Cohen indeed did mention it to reporters covering his campaign, stressing that the charges were dropped when the girlfriend failed to show up in court to press them. In the telling, however, he omitted critical details found in the police report and other court records.
The girlfriend, then 24-year-old Amanda Eneman, accused Cohen of swinging a knife at her and putting it to her neck, causing minor scars. He has denied doing so.
Eneman also was a prostitute, though Cohen says he didn’t know it and thought she was a massage therapist. On Wednesday, Cohen told the Tribune through a spokesman that the two met in a bar. The next day Cohen said that had been a misstatement and they had actually met when he was a customer at Eden Spa, a massage parlor in Glenview where she worked.
Cohen said he got only a “straight massage” at Eden Spa, with no sexual contact. But records show that at around the same time he met Eneman, she had been arrested at Eden Spa for performing a sex act on an undercover police officer in exchange for $150. The police report quoted her telling the officer at the end of their session that prostitution was common there.
After they met, Cohen said Eneman moved in with him at his Gold Coast apartment for “five or six months.” The fight allegedly involving the knife occurred in mid-October 2005, just days before Eneman pleaded guilty to the prostitution charge.
Q: Where is Cohen’s ex-girlfriend now?
A: After Cohen called on Eneman to come forward and discuss their relationship publicly so that “the facts come to light,” the Tribune began looking for her.
Eneman apparently still works for the same company giving massages. The business has relocated at least twice since her 2005 arrest, and is now located in Villa Park.
A Tribune reporter visited the massage parlor Thursday afternoon and spoke to a woman who handled appointments. The reporter asked if “Mandi” or Amanda was available. The woman said she was not there at the moment and could not give a schedule of when she would next work, saying she usually gave massages by appointment.
The reporter asked the worker if she knew Amanda Eneman well, and she responded, “I hope so, I’m her boss.”
At that point, the reporter gave the woman his Tribune business card and asked her to have Eneman call him. Later Thursday, a woman called the reporter’s desk and left a voice-mail message, stating: “Hi. I received your business card. You’re looking for me. I don’t know exactly what it could be that you need to find me. I would appreciate that you make no further contact to locate me. Thank you.”
Later Thursday another reporter went to the massage parlor and encountered two women, including one who fit Eneman’s physical description. The reporter addressed that woman as “Mandi” and asked to talk to her. She said nothing, but a woman with her yelled, “Quick — run to the car!” and told the reporter they wanted nothing to do with the story.
Q: Cohen went through a rough divorce involving allegations leveled by ex-wife Debra York-Cohen that he was unfaithful, abusive and left his family living on a shoestring while he lived high on the hog. Both Cohen and his ex-wife now say his erratic behavior was confined to a short time and blamed it on his use of illegally obtained steroids. What does the divorce file say?
A: In May 2005, York-Cohen obtained an order of protection against Cohen, alleging that he had been taking injectable steroids for a year and in the previous month had launched into several tirades directed primarily at his sons. “Although Scott has not been physically abusive in the recent past, he was physically abusive to me many years ago,” York-Cohen alleged at the time.
After she filed for divorce, York-Cohen said, Cohen began leaving her “intimidating notes” and later wrote “harassing messages” on her mirror in lipstick. “For the past two years life has been pretty unbearable,” she alleged. “I live in constant fear.”
In December, York-Cohen accused her ex-husband of being $54,000 in arrears in child support payments. The allegation was leveled at a time when Cohen was pouring more than $2 million of his own money into his campaign for TV and radio ads.
Q: A central feature of Cohen’s campaign ads was his sponsorship of job fairs to connect laid off Illinois workers with jobs. How did that work?
A: The Tribune contacted several businesses that Cohen’s campaign listed as participants at three job fairs, and each business confirmed that it had attended.
Among those who appeared in Cohen’s TV and radio ads was Jason Kyle, 26, who described finding a job at one of the candidate’s fairs. Contacted by phone Friday, Kyle confirmed all that he had said in the ads and staunchly defended Cohen, saying he would vote for him again. “He gave me his personal number to use as a reference at job interviews and stuff like that,” Kyle said. “He seemed like a stand-up guy.”
The job Kyle got in July, following a June job fair, was doing door-to-door sales for a cable company. He said he’ll be losing the job next week.
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