The ex-wife of Rep. Alan Grayson (D., Fla.) repeatedly went to police with accusations that her husband abused her over the course of their stormy marriage, Politico reported Tuesday.
Lolita Grayson called the police at least twice in Virginia and twice in Florida regarding the abuse and said the fiery congressman once threatened to kill her, according to police reports she provided.
The congressman, who asserted Lolita Grayson battered him in 2014, vehemently denies he engaged in any abuse during their 25-year marriage, which ended last year in a bitter annulment that she is now appealing.
The first reported incident described by the documents was in 1994; the final one was in 2014. Lolita Grayson also called Orange County sheriff’s deputies in 2005 to lodge another abuse complaint, but prosecutors filed no charges in that incident or any of the others. Only the 2014 incident has been previously reported.
"I want the people to know my story so they know what kind of man Alan Grayson really is," Lolita Grayson, 56, said in an email to POLITICO, her first public comments on the issue. She provided police and medical records related to 1994 and 1999 incidents in Fairfax County in Virginia, and sheriff’s reports concerning 2005 and 2014 incidents in Orange County, Florida.
"I requested the medical records and police records so people could read what doctors and police officers wrote," she stated. "I read many of these records for the first time. These are very painful memories and horrible experiences."
Rep. Grayson denied the allegations through his lawyer, calling her a "disturbed woman." Grayson, a candidate in Florida’s Democratic Senate primary, in addition to accusing Lolita of hitting him in 2014, once tried to have her arrested for alleged credit card fraud.
He is known for his staunchly left-wing politics and colorful language against political opponents. He once famously remarked that the Republican health care plan was to not get sick, but if you do, "die quickly."