U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's former girlfriend said Thomas was a "raving alcoholic" and pornography fetishist before he joined the court. UPI/Roger L. Wollenberg | License Photo

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's former girlfriend said Thomas was a "raving alcoholic" and pornography fetishist before he joined the court.

Lillian McEwen, who dated Thomas for several years before Thomas's Supreme Court nomination in 1991, said on CNN's "Larry King Live" it was time for her to come forward with her story after she was "tricked" by a Washington Post reporter into commenting on the phone message to Anita Hill left by Thomas's wife, Virginia.


Hill nearly derailed Thomas's high court nomination when she accused him of sexual harassment during the time the two worked at the U.S. Department of Education and then the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Thomas denied improper behavior toward Hill, saying her statements were a form of lynching.

RELATED Apology sought from Anita Hill

McEwen, a former prosecutor and administrative law judge, said after Thomas gave up drinking, he became angry and obsessive, and bullied his son.

"His enemies are people who are active in civil rights, professors who have criticized him and anybody who disagrees with the conservative friends that he has such as Rush Limbaugh," McEwen said.

McEwen, who seeks a publisher for her own memoir, said she believes Hill's story because of Thomas's use of pornography.

"I suppose I would call it a fetish or a hobby. It was something that was very important to him, something that he talked about," McEwen said.

McEwen said she thought Thomas would have a hard time as a Supreme Court justice because he displayed "instability," a "lack of intellectual curiosity," and had difficulty concentrating when reading for a long time.