The Kansas police chief who conducted a 1998 strip club raid involving Democratic candidate for governor Paul Davis said Davis did nothing wrong.
Harry Smith, the Independence, Kan., police chief, backed up a statement released earlier by Davis, who said he was “in the wrong place at the wrong time” when police raided the strip club looking for drugs.
“Paul was there, and as he said that night, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Smith said. “At the time of my encounter with Paul he was totally cooperative, and was not involved in any wrongdoing. Paul was not and never to my knowledge the focus of that or any other investigation.
Smiths added that Davis “was not involved in our investigation that night, therefore he was simply questioned briefly and released.”
In a statement provided to the Washington Examiner, Paul Davis said he was taken to the strip club by his boss because the club owner was a legal client.
The story about Davis and the strip club appeared Saturday in the Coffeyville Journal, a newspaper that does not have a website.
Davis accused his opponent, incumbent Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, of digging up dirt on Davis to engage in a “smear campaign.”
Davis is leading Brownback by about four points, according to a Real Clear Politics polling average.
The Democrat has accused Brownback of being the subject of an FBI influence peddling probe.
