Cisneros Sued by Ex-Lover Over Support

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry G. Cisneros was sued Friday by a former campaign aide who claimed he reneged on a promise to pay her $4,000 a month after they ended an affair.

Linda Medlar filed suit in Lubbock, Tex., where she now lives. She said the affair continued for two years after she was hired as a fund-raiser in 1986 by Cisneros, who was then mayor of San Antonio.

Cisneros said he paid her for about three years, but stopped when he was nominated to become HUD secretary in January, 1993.

“I explained to Ms. Medlar that I would now be on a fixed government salary and would not be able to assist as I had, but would use some of my savings to give her some assistance so that she could transition to a job over the forthcoming year,” Cisneros said in a statement.

He added in an interview that he offered to help Medlar for another year but “she insisted she wanted three years at a minimum and I was just not in a position to do that.”

At some point, he said, “you can’t give in to the threat if you don’t have the money.” Cisneros is paid $148,400 a year as HUD secretary.

Medlar claims in her lawsuit that Cisneros made their affair public and she “was held up to public ridicule and scorn, and was publicly and thoroughly humiliated.”

Her attorneys said Cisneros has paid close to $200,000. The lawsuit seeks $256,000 in actual damages and unspecified punitive damages.