Leach Files Defamation Lawsuit After Midconduct Allegations

As the state senate launches an investigation into resurfaced allegations of sexual assault against him, local lawmaker Daylin Leach is filing a defamation lawsuit.

Leach said that a group of 6-8 people has been showing at several of his events "screaming obscenities...and holding up horrific and defamatory signs." He added that they are led by a convicted perjurer, though the specific individuals have not been identified publicly by name.

In Dec. 2017, a report stated that former staffers alleged Leach had inappropriately touched a female staffer. The latest allegation is completely separate. It's from an Allentown woman who has prepared a criminal complaint in Lehigh County court but has not filed it, according to a report in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

It alleges that Leach had the woman — the daughter of someone he represented as a private attorney — perform oral sex on him when she was 17, back in 1991. Leach denied the allegation.

Leach, whose 17th district covers Norristown, Upper Merion, and the surrounding area, has been in the state senate since 2009. Before the scandal broke in Dec. 2017, he had planned a run for U.S. Congress' 7th District, which he ultimately backed out of.

He said that he was only going to court in this case as a last resort.

"My family and I are no longer able or willing to endure this," he said. "For the sake of the issues I care about, for the sake of my family and friends and staff, for the sake of my reputation, and for the importance of truth itself, I simply cannot continue to silently and passively allow this. I have always said that I wanted due process. Now, I am going to get it."

The law firm Eckert Seamans has been hired by the state senate to head up the investigation into Leach, who has said he will cooperate fully.

(AP Photo/Marc Levy)