Sharon Bialek goes public over Herman Cain sexual assault allegations

Sharon Bialek, a former employee of a restaurant lobby group, said Mr Cain had reached up her skirt and pulled her head towards his crotch.


Hers is the fourth allegation of sexual misconduct to emerge against Mr Cain.


The Cain campaign immediately issued a denial: "All allegations of harassment against Mr Cain are false."


Mr Cain, a former pizza magnate, is a leading contender for the Republican nomination to take on President Barack Obama in 2012.


Washington news website Politico reported a week ago that at least two women had complained of sexual harassment while he was head of a lobby group, the National Restaurant Association, in the 1990s.


A third woman came forward days later, accusing Mr Cain of inappropriate behaviour at around the same time.


The dramatic New York press conference, conducted in a wood-panelled room lined with photos of famous actors, put paid to Cain's hopes that the worst of the sexual harassment scandal might be behind him. Over the weekend, Cain refused to answer reporters' questions about the accusations, saying only: "End of story".


Now his campaign is fast approaching the dead zone. To add to Cain's problems, Joel Bennett, a Washington-based lawyer representing one of the three women who came forward earlier, said his client had described conduct by Cain that was similar to the description given by Bialek.


The big question is whether the former chief executive of Godfather's Pizza will limp on to the first of the Republican nominating contests, the Iowa caucus, on 3 January, or pull out before then.


Throughout most of last week, Cain successfully defied traditional campaign wisdom that the allegations of sexual harassment would sink his chances of the Republican presidential nomination. In spite of the allegations, he remained high in the polls among Republican voters and, according to his campaign, raised $1.6m from small donors in five days.


But the first signs of support fraying emerged in a poll on Sunday and another on Monday, the latter showing a rise in his negative ratings from 18% to 35%. The trend is likely to accelerate after voters see the footage of Bialek giving her graphic account of the alleged sexual advance.


Bialek recounted how she had met Cain in 1997 over five days of the National Restaurant Association's annual convention in Chicago. She was then working for the NRA's educational foundation while he was head of the entire organisation.


Seated together at lunch, she said she was inspired by him and said to him, paradoxical as it now sounds: "When are you running for president?"


A month after they met, Bialek was dismissed from the NRA and got back in touch with him to ask for advice on finding a new job. She travelled to Washington in July 1997 to have coffee with him.


When she got there she found, to her surprise, that the room her boyfriend, a paediatrician, had booked for her at the Capitol Hilton hotel had been turned into a palatial suite. When she told Cain about it that evening in the lobby, she recounted that he "smirked and then said: 'I upgraded you'."


At dinner, Bialek asked him to help her find work and he said he would try. Then he drove her to the offices of the NRA, parking the car down the block.


She alleged that instead of going into the building, he "suddenly reached over and put his hand on my leg, under my skirt and reached for my genitals. He also grabbed my head and brought it towards his crotch."


She was shocked and upset, she said, and told Cain that this was "not what I came here for". She later told her boyfriend and a businessman friend that Cain had been sexually inappropriate with her – conversations that Allred said had been confirmed by the two men in sworn testimony.


Allred added that Bialek had approached her about going public with the story, and that there were no financial motives behind her statement.


Bialek finished her account with what appeared to be a call for Cain to quit the race for the White House. "We need a leader who … exemplifies the standard of a person of good moral character. Mr Cain, I implore you, make this right so that you and the country can move forward."


Cain will face renewed questions from reporters wherever he goes, including an appearance on Wednesday at the next televised presidential debate, to be held in Michigan, that could prove awkward.


All about: Gloria Allred,  Herman Cain, Mitt Romney,  Paul Ryan,  Rick Perry,  Herman Cain sex allegation,  Sexual harassment