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Experts: Bush Groping Allegations Would Be Hard To Prosecute

Pat Sullivan
/
Associated Press/file
In a Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2008 file photo, former President George H. W. Bush leaves a news conference at the Houston hospital where his wife Barbara has spent a week after surgery for a perforated ulcer.

HOUSTON - Allegations that former President George H.W. Bush inappropriately touched six women involve potential crimes punishable by fines or jail time, if they had been prosecuted.
 
All but one of the cases is ineligible under state laws that limit when a prosecution can begin after an alleged crime. And several lawyers interviewed by the Associated Press say it would be difficult to win a conviction against Bush, who has vascular parkinsonism, a rare syndrome that mimics Parkinson's disease.
 
There's no indication prosecutors are planning to pursue a case against Bush.
 
The women's stories broadly follow the same outline. They say Bush patted their buttocks as they stood next to him to take photos.
 
Bush has issued repeated apologies through a spokesman "to anyone he has offended."