Married N.J. mayor resigns in ‘rentboy’ scandal

A screen grab of a photo alleging to be of mayor Chris Myers from mayormyers.webs.com, before the site was frozen. (Photo credit: MayorMyers.webs.com)

Chris Myers, a married father of two and former naval officer, resigned today as mayor of Medford Township New Jersey amid calls for his departure, according to the Courier Post, a southern New Jersey newspaper.

Without citing the scandal itself, which broke in October, the 46-year-old Republican said he was resigning to concentrate on work. The Courier Post, however, notes that Myers left his employment with Lockheed Martin on Dec. 1 after company representatives said “the Republican’s alleged scandal caused workplace distractions,” according to the paper. The paper reported that Myers declined to answer a question about whether he is gay or bisexual.

The paper says that an unidentified male claiming to be a male escort in California set up a website in October featuring photos of a man that appears to be Chris Myers in his underwear in a California hotel room, along with photos of Myers’ open wallet with his city-issued I.D. card clearly exposed. The individual claims that the two met through website rentboy.com and that Myers paid $500 for sex, but reneged on additional promises and gifts, including, allegedly, the gift of a car.

In October, the individual began sending emails linking to the website to township government officials and local media. According to the website Phillyburbs.com — the web portal for the Bucks County Courier Times, Burlington County Times and Doylestown Intelligencer newspapers — one of the emails to the Courier Times read, in part, “Chris Myers is a lying, manipulative, egotistical hypocrite and escort enthusiast. I am proof.”

“I’ve been down that road before, where a photo has been photoshopped to look like something it wasn’t,” he told the Courier Times in October, declining to provide specifics about the incident he was referring to.

Myers also seemed to allege to the newspaper that someone could have snuck into his hotel room while he was sleeping to take the picture, implying the photo may not be photoshopped after all.

Myers was absent from most of the town council meetings after the story broke, but during a rare appearance at the Nov. 3 meeting, Myers “categorically” denied that he had had any sexual contact with the individual making claims about the mayor.

The website set up by the alleged ‘rentboy’ has been offline since late October. mayormyers.webs.com now redirects visitors to a page urging the frozen page’s owner to contact the host company’s “Abuse Team.” The LGBT blog Towleroad captured a photo apparently of the mayor from the site before it was frozen.