BUSH CAMPAIGN Official quits post in wake of affair

The prosecutor is accused of sexual harassment.
CINCINNATI (AP) -- The county prosecutor stepped down as a regional chairman for the Bush campaign days after acknowledging an affair with a female lawyer who works in his office.
Bush campaign spokesman Kevin Madden said Sunday that Hamilton County Prosecutor Michael Allen resigned his position as the campaign's chairman for southwest Ohio on Friday. Madden said no replacement had been named.
Madden said he had no further details and did not know whether it would affect Allen's role as a delegate to the Republican National Convention, which begins today in New York.
Messages seeking comment were left at Allen's office and at the office of his attorney, Michael Hawkins.
Lawsuit filed
On Saturday, Hawkins said the woman who filed the lawsuit accusing Allen of sexual harassment asked for a $2 million settlement days before she filed suit. Hawkins said no counteroffer was made.
Rebecca Collins' lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, said Allen used his authority as her boss to get sexual favors from her from 1999 until this year. Collins, an assistant prosecutor, requests unspecified damages from him and the county's board of commissioners.
Allen called a news conference Wednesday to read a statement about his affair. Allen said then that he regrets what he said was a consensual affair from December 1999 through August 2003.
Randy Freking, Collins' attorney, declined to specify the amount sought in settlement talks. He said Collins filed suit when Allen made the relationship public.
"She realized he had no serious interest in having the county or himself settle the case," Freking said. "She was concerned he would begin a public relations campaign against her."
Allen, a 48-year-old father of two who is married to Judge Lisa Allen of Hamilton County Municipal Court, said in a statement Thursday that the harassment claims are outrageous and false.
Carl Stich, Collins' supervisor and the attorney who oversees the office's civil division, said the allegations will be investigated per the office's sexual harassment policy. Hamilton County commissioners said earlier that they also would launch an investigation.