Dominican police: 3 Women were paid to lie about Menendez

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- Three women were paid to claim falsely in videotaped interviews that they had sex for money with Sen. Robert Menendez in the Dominican Republic, a spokesman for the police said yesterday.

The women, whose claims generated media attention in the United States, were hired by a Dominican attorney to make the statements, spokesman Maximo Baez said. Two of the women received about $425 and the other was paid about $300, he said.

Authorities are seeking to interrogate the attorney, Melanio Figueroa, about the payments and have not determined his motive or whether he was in turn paid by someone else to set up the interviews, Baez said.

The women have not been detained.

The police spokesman was making his most detailed comments to date on an investigation into the source of allegations that Menendez (D-N.J.) had sex with prostitutes, including two who were underage, while in the Dominican Republic with campaign contributor Dr. Salomon Melgen, a South Florida doctor, and with Vinicio Castillo Seman, an attorney whose family is politically prominent in the Dominican Republic.

Castillo and Menendez have denied hiring prostitutes.

Castillo, a cousin of Melgen, requested the investigation into what he said were "false and defamatory" accusations.

Jose Polanco, a prosecutor in the town of La Romana, said he interviewed all three women and also determined that none was underage at the time. -- AP