College girlfriend says James Comer abused her

A woman who dated gubernatorial candidate James Comer while the two were in college said in a letter to The Courier-Journal on Monday that he was physically and mentally abusive to her during what she said was a two-year relationship.

"Did Jamie Comer ever hit me? Yes," wrote Marilyn Thomas, who attended Western Kentucky University with Comer in the early 1990s.

Comer's lawyer, Dick Plymale, of Lexington, said in an interview that Comer "profusely denies" all the allegations in the letter and promised a "devastating lawsuit" against the newspaper if it published the story.

Plymale went on to criticize Thomas, saying "I've heard unpleasant things about her personality and mental state."

The allegations come as Comer, Kentucky's agriculture commissioner, enters the final two weeks of his campaign to be the Republican nominee for governor.

In the four-page letter, Thomas detailed a relationship that she said "was toxic, abusive and caused me a lot of suffering. His controlling and aggressive personality alienated me from most of my family and friends at the time."

Thomas said Comer threatened and belittled her and that she ultimately moved away from Kentucky in an effort to leave that chapter of her life behind. She now lives in New York City.

She has supported Hal Heiner, one of Comer's rivals for the nomination, on social media and has contributed $100 to his campaign, according to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance.

In the letter, Thomas does not offer specific details of the alleged physical abuse other than to say Comer struck her. She told a reporter that she never filed a police complaint against him. In the letter, she said she had been "emotionally weak" at the time.

"Everything I did, everywhere I went, and everyone with whom I interacted had to be approved" by Comer, Thomas wrote. "Consequences were violent and swift otherwise."

She said Comer became "enraged" in 1991 after they visited a Louisville abortion clinic and learned that she had used his real name on a form requiring proof that she had an escort to drive her home.

Plymale told The Courier-Journal late Monday night that the abortion allegation was crazy and "not true."

Wendy Curley, who said she shared a dorm room at Western Kentucky with Thomas, said that Thomas and Comer had "a very rocky relationship."

"I would see bruises on her wrists and stuff where she'd say, 'Oh, I ran into a table,' 'I fell,' just that kind of stuff," Curley said.

Curley said Thomas never told her she was being abused. "It was always something to cover (for him). She didn't want anybody to know that he was abusive to her."

She also said Comer took Thomas for an abortion.

"I know she ended up getting pregnant in like October of 1991 and had an abortion in the beginning of November, and I remember him seeing her to the dorm and just dropping her off after they got back from the abortion," Curley said.

Billy Proffitt, an auctioneer and real estate agent in Comer's hometown of Tompkinsville and Comer's roommate in college, however, said he never saw Comer be abusive toward Thomas.

"That doesn't sound like Jamie at all," said Proffitt, who said he had never even heard rumors of abuse until blogs started talking about them and that he had never heard allegations of an abortion.

Thomas said she still has paperwork from the visit to the clinic. "I kept that piece of paper as a reminder of what desperation and rock bottom feel like. For more than 20 years, that piece of paper has been a source of anxiety and shame. But it was mine. It was only mine."

She said the paper is in a lock box at a Kentucky bank and she didn't have immediate access to it.

In the letter, Thomas said that Comer once called her parents at 2 a.m. to "make violent threats against me."

Mary Rose Thomas, Marilyn Thomas' 83-year-old mother, said in an interview that Comer called her home one morning some 25 years ago. "I couldn't understand everything he was saying, but he said something about your daughter's going to be killed. ... It was something like that."

Plymale did not address those allegations specifically when asked Monday night, but he suggested the newspaper was falling victim to a hoax.

Marilyn Thomas said she felt she had no choice but to come forward following months of allegations by a Lexington blogger who identified her by name and then last week when the Lexington Herald-Leader ran a story that raised the question of abuse by Comer but did not name her.

Comer told The Courier-Journal last week that the two had dated for a "few months" and later said it was "less than a year" while they were at Western. He went on to say that he didn't recall how the relationship ended.

"I don't remember. I don't think it was, if I remember correctly it was just a mutual agreement. Nothing controversial," he said.

In the Herald-Leader story, Comer said of Thomas, "I think she's a good person. … And I don't think she would have anything to do with this."

In her letter, Thomas said she wanted to avoid coming forward.

"I feel as if I have no choice but to speak up against the lies," she wrote to The Courier-Journal. "The underbelly of the internet has painted me as a crazy person, a liar, an opportunist, a fame-seeker, and a bitter ex-girlfriend. … (E)nough is enough."

That story in the Herald-Leader said that Scott Crosbie, the husband of KC Crosbie, who is running for lieutenant governor on a ticket with Heiner, had been in communication with the blogger concerning rumors about her and Comer. Heiner denied his campaign was involved.

Comer and Matt Bevin, another candidate for governor, both criticized Heiner for the episode.

With that, Thomas said, "all the scars of my relationship with Jamie were reduced to fodder last week to tear down a politician, who I have also never met."

In months of discussions with The Courier-Journal, Thomas said repeatedly she wanted only to be left alone. The newspaper never pressed her to speak.

"The fact that I am speaking out now is not something I approached lightly. As a matter of fact, I feel under great duress in doing it now. I do not want to be involved in this. This letter will be the last thing that I say about Jamie Comer and my past relationship," she wrote.

Reporter Joseph Gerth can be reached at (502) 582-4702. Follow him on Twitter at @Joe_Gerth.