Mike Duvall has a message for Californians:
"Give me a break."
No, he's not the disgraced California legislator — he's an unrelated Utah namesake besieged with e-mails when the Orange County lawmaker resigned after boasting of two extramarital affairs, perhaps with lobbyists.
"Oh my gosh, yeah, it was unbelievable," the 61-year-old Utah resident said of his confusion when he suddenly began getting furious messages questioning his morality and fidelity.
"They were telling me they hope my wife would leave me, and that my career is shot, and they wanted me in financial ruin," said Duvall, who is the married father of three children.
Utah's Duvall pops up on Facebook or when Internet users Google the shared first and last name. He said he received scores of angry e-mails, perhaps 150, after videotape surfaced of the family-value politician boasting of spanking a lover.
As mud began flying, Duvall said he hadn't yet heard of the flap involving the 54-year-old Orange County legislator who bolted the Capitol Sept. 9 and claimed his offense was inappropriate storytelling, not affairs.
"I'm thinking, "What in the world is this all about?'" Utah's Duvall recalled.
"I don't have any enemies anywhere," he said. "I've never sued anybody. I've never been sued. I pay all my bills on time. And I've got good relationships with everybody."
A colleague from California broke the news to him, joking, "Boy, you've got to watch what you're doing when you're in California, Mike.'"
Read more at SacBee.com