Former Bloomingdale doctor urged Bialek to speak out

A former Bloomingdale doctor said Monday he encouraged his former girlfriend Sharon Bialek to seek employment help from Herman Cain, a recommendation she said ultimately turned into an unwanted sexual advance from the presidential hopeful.

“I can confirm that she said something happened,” Victor Zuckerman said at a news conference Monday in Louisiana, where he now lives. “Mr. Cain had touched her in an inappropriate manner. She had handled it and didn't want to discuss it further. I respected her.”

Zuckerman, who was accompanied at the news conference by Bialek's attorney, Gloria Allred, said he signed one of two affidavits swearing to Bialek's story.

He also contested Cain's statements that the Republican presidential contender “didn't even know” Bialek. Zuckerman said he was with Bialek at a 1997 event where they both conversed with Cain.

“Sharon indeed did meet and spend time with Mr. Cain,” Zuckerman said.

In turn, Cain's attorney, Lin Wood, insisted that his client “doesn't recall Ms. Bialek.”

Last week, attendees at a Midwest Tea Party Convention Oct. 1 in Schaumburg said Cain and Bialek also were seen conversing at that event.

Bialek, of Glenview, said last week that in 1997, Cain groped her in a car following a dinner in Washington, D.C., where she had asked his help getting a job after she was laid off from the National Restaurant Association, where Cain was CEO.

“You want a job, right?” Bialek said Cain asked her when she rejected his advances.

Zuckerman said he encouraged Bialek to contact Allred after realizing Cain was the same man she had told him assaulted her.

In spring 1997, Bialek said, she was involved in a National Restaurant Association program that aimed to recruit young people into the industry.

At a Chicago convention, Zuckerman said, Bialek met and spent time with Cain, and was seated next to him at a luncheon and a dinner.

Bialek, he said, wanted him to meet the man who she described as having a great deal “of wit, of warmth, and great public-speaking abilities.”

Zuckerman met Cain at an after-party, and remembers speaking with Cain about a gospel album that Cain was putting out.

Zuckerman and Bialek stopped dating in the late 1990s, but he said they remain friends who speak every few months.

When news first broke that Cain was the subject of sexual harassment complaints, Zuckerman said he asked Bialek if she was one of the accusers.

He said she was not, but described her as “livid.”

He said he encouraged her to contact Allred, who has a reputation for taking on high-profile women's rights cases.

Court documents show that Zuckerman filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy from Louisiana in September 2010. According to court records, assets of his former medical practice in Bloomingdale were sold to Central DuPage Hospital for $333,000. He owed the practice $675,0000, his former wife $89,000, and the IRS $50,000, court documents showed.

On Monday, Zuckerman said he wanted to “get ahead of any parties that want to discredit me” and is current on all of his reorganization payments, and has never committed a crime or malpractice.

Zuckerman also said Bialek is not receiving any compensation from Allred for speaking out, and said she did not ask for any.

•The Associated Press contributed to this report.