CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A 39-year-old Cleveland woman sued auto dealer and

on Thursday, accusing him of sexually assaulting her in his office last year.

The married mother of four filed the civil suit in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court after months of attorney negotiations and a five-hour mediation conference failed to reach a settlement. She seeks damages in excess of $25,000.

and the

Ganley's lawyer, former prosecutor Steve Dever, called the charges extortion and said they were motivated by politics.

"These are baseless allegations, the only motive being to extort money and to cause political harm to a good and decent man," Dever said Thursday night. "Tom Ganley is not the type of person who's going to back down from threats and be extorted for financial gain."

"Unfortunately, his day in court won't come until after the election," Dever said.

The lawsuit is the first public allegation made by the woman, who never told police of the August 2009 encounter with Ganley and still has not filed a police report. The Plain Dealer does not identify people who claim to be victims of sexual assault.

Ganley, a conservative Republican, faces incumbent Betty Sutton, a Democrat, in the 13th Congressional District. He had not shown much interest in running for public office before last year and contributed little money to politicians. He describes himself as an political outsider whose business experience qualifies him for office.

Ganley's companies -- which include car dealerships, insurance, finance and real estate companies -- are worth between $44 million and $214 million, according to financial disclosure forms he filed with the U.S. Senate. His network of dealerships comprise the largest auto group in Ohio, and he employs more than 1,000 people.

The 68-year-old Ganley has been married to his wife Lois, whom he met in elementary school, for 45 years and has four children and eight grandchildren, according to his campaign website.

Woman says she met him at Tea Party meeting

His accuser said she attended a Cleveland Tea Party rally where Ganley spoke on July 3, 2009, when he was a candidate for the U.S. Senate, before he decided to run for Congress. Impressed by Ganley's anti-abortion platform, the lawsuit says, the woman approached him, introduced herself and her children and offered to volunteer on his campaign.

The woman then visited Ganley's Chevrolet dealership on Lorain Avenue in Cleveland three times during the following weeks, to discuss volunteer campaign duties and a reduction in the interest rate on a car loan she received from a Ganley dealership, the lawsuit says.

Ganley talked during the meetings about fixing her van for free, reducing her interest rate and giving her a job at a dealership, according to the suit.

In their second meeting, Ganley told the woman that he and his wife lead separate lives and live on opposite sides of their home, the suit says. In each of the meetings, the suit says, Ganley pressed her about what she does for "fun."

On her last visit to Ganley's office, Aug. 1, the woman said she dropped off her van for repairs. While she waited in Ganley's office, the suit says, he made sexually suggestive comments and invited her to join him and his friends at a condominium he owns in Strongsville. Ganley gave her a $100 bill and told her to buy some lingerie and high-heeled shoes, according to the lawsuit.

Ganley told her he wanted her to dominate her, parade her on a leash and have sex with her in front of his "play friends," the suit says. It accuses him of grabbing her from behind, wrapping his arms around her, kissing her and, despite her resistance, reaching into her pants.

No report made to police

The woman said she never reported the incident to police because she didn't think anyone would believe her, partly because of Ganley's ties to law enforcement. Ganley runs Crime Stoppers of Northern Ohio, a crime tip line that works closely with police, and is well known for having helped the FBI with an organized crime investigation.

Shortly after the incident, however, the woman told several of her friends about it, the lawsuit says. Encouraged by a mutual friend, the woman approached attorney Ed Heben on Oct. 1 and told him her story, Heben said.

On Oct. 9, she wrote a letter to Ganley, chastising him for his actions.

"I came to you as a customer and you treated me like a hooker," she wrote in the letter, included with the lawsuit. "On one hand here's this man I respect, who's helping me and then I felt at the same time that I was being completely taken advantage of.

"You are no different than the Democrats," she said. She is a registered Republican.

In that letter, the woman described in graphic terms what she alleges Ganley said to her, but she made no mention of any physical assault. The suit says she left out details of the assault because she feared Ganley would interpret them as a threat.

Ganley's attorneys and Heben tried for months to reach an out-of-court settlement. Later, they met in a Sept. 13 mediation hearings, and Ganley agreed to pay the mediation costs, including $500 an hour to the mediator, the suit says.

Dever described the negotiations as "an endless drumbeat of threats" by Heben, the bottom line being "pay the money or get sued."

Dever said the mediation session was an attempt to ascertain what the woman was alleging.

"We found absolutely no corroboration whatsoever," Dever said.