LOUISVILLE - A Kentucky state trooper was suspended in March 1999 for sexually inappropriate comments he made to Tina Conner, the woman with whom Gov. Paul Patton has admitted having an affair.

        Following the alleged comments by Trooper George Bell, Mrs. Conner called Jody Lassiter, constituent director in Mr. Patton's office.

        Mr. Lassiter told the Courier-Journal he called Dan Cherry, who was secretary of the Justice Cabinet at the time, on Mrs. Conner's behalf. Mr. Cherry arranged a Dec. 18, 1998, meeting with Mrs. Conner, her then-husband, Seth, and then-Kentucky State Police Commissioner Gary Rose. Mrs. Conner and Mr. Rose said Mr. Cherry also attended the meeting.

        Trooper Bell was suspended for eight days without pay on March 5, 1999. He was also temporarily assigned to work in a different county, according to state police records.

        Mrs. Conner, who operates a nursing home in western Kentucky, said Mr. Patton gave her special favors during their two-year affair, but then retaliated against her when they broke up.

        Mr. Patton denied using his office to help or hurt Mrs. Conner.

        Mrs. Conner and Mr. Patton were involved at the time of the complaint involving Mr. Bell.

        The special meeting arranged for Mrs. Conner is not the way complaints about a trooper typically are handled, according to Mr. Rose and the current internal affairs commander, Capt. Steve Simpson.

        “It's very unusual that somebody would come directly to the commissioner and complain,” Mr. Simpson said.

        Mrs. Conner served as the political point person for the Patton administration in Hickman County from 1996 to 2001. She said that as a member of Mr. Patton's constituent network, she believed Mr. Lassiter was the appropriate person to call.

        Mr. Cherry said last week that he had “absolutely no recollection” of a meeting with Mrs. Conner, adding that “I don't think it's likely I wouldn't remember that.”

        Mr. Rose, however, said Mr. Cherry arranged for the 1998 meeting.

        Through the state's Open Records Act, the Courier-Journal received a memo from Mr. Rose to the then-head of internal affairs, outlining her accusations.

        Mrs. Conner's complaint contained four counts against Trooper Bell. She said he made them in 1996 while he was investigating a sexual-abuse charge she filed on behalf of a juvenile against a former employee at Mrs. Conner's nursing home.

        “He made sexual comments to me in my office in front of my husband,” Mrs. Conner said.

        Two years later, she said, he made sexually offensive comments to her in front of her family at a Paducah restaurant.

        He was suspended because of those two incidents, according police records.

        The other two counts involved inappropriate comments she said she heard him make to other women, a police report said.

        Trooper Bell, in his investigative notes, found the sexual abuse charge filed by Mrs. Conner to be unfounded, but Commonwealth Attorney Tim Langford said the suspect pleaded guilty to a similar charge in another case.

        Trooper Bell, 40, has served with the state police for 14 years, won a Commissioner's Commendation in June 1996 when he responded to a call that an armed man was threatening a neighbor.

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