CLEVELAND, Ohio – Casey Hager, the electrician whose 4:30 a.m. call about a suspicious car led Westlake police to Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, saw the car's occupants climb into the backseat, an attorney for Hager said Tuesday.

The lawyer, in a telephone interview with the Northeast Ohio Media Group, also said Hager saw a man emerge from the backseat after police arrived.

After initially declining to comment, FitzGerald's campaign disputed the account.

"The assertion that Ed FitzGerald was in the backseat is false," FitzGerald spokesman Daniel McElhatton said. "It did not happen. That is inaccurate."

Westlake police, after declining for days to comment further on the 2012 incident, disputed Hager's account.

After speaking Tuesday with an officer who responded, Lt. Ray Arcuri said that FitzGerald and his female passenger both were in the front seat.

"In fact," said Arcuri, "Ed jumped out really fast."

NEOMG reported last week that officers responded to an industrial park in the pre-dawn hours of Oct. 13, 2012 following a call from a witness. Hager told police that he was working nearby and noticed a car parked for about a half-hour, records show.

"I don't know if they're having sex in the parking lot or what they're doing here," Hager told a dispatcher. "I don't know if they don't notice all my lights inside ... but all I keep seeing is like something going back and forth, and I'm like, eh, you know what, this is a little fishy. And I know the owner here wouldn't really want this here."

Police reported that FitzGerald and a woman – who was not his wife – were just talking in the car. FitzGerald, now the Democratic nominee for governor, has said he and Joanne Grehan, a friend visiting with an Irish delegation, had been separated from the rest of the group when delegates riding in another car got lost looking for their hotel.

FitzGerald, who did not have a permanent driver's license at the time, has been adamant that nothing improper happened in the car. And Grehan, in a statement released by his campaign, described the incident as "innocuous." Police did not charge anyone.

When NEOMG reached Hager last week, when the nearly two-year-old report surfaced, he said he had no idea that police reported finding FitzGerald in the car. But he declined to answer further questions at the time and hired an attorney, John Demer.

Demer agreed to speak on Hager's behalf Tuesday with NEOMG.

"What he saw was, the headlights were on for a period," said Demer, relaying his client's recollections. "Then the lights were turned off, and the dome light went on.

"It was an SUV," Demer added. "What he observed was that two people climbed over the console to get into the backseat. Time went by, the car's still there."

Hager checked with a boss before calling police, Demer said. Two officers responded.

"A man immediately got out of the backseat when the police officer got there," Demer said. Hager "noticed that there was a woman in the backseat."

The attorney added: Hager's "recollection is that the woman, when she was being interviewed [by police], was wearing a man's sport coat or jacket."

Hager recalls speaking to only one of the officers, Demer said.

A private investigator visited Hager last month to discuss the Westlake incident, Demer said. But the investigator did not identify who he was working for and did not mention that police had reported that FitzGerald was in the car that morning.

Grehan could not be reached for comment Tuesday.