It’s that bittersweet time of year when many parents see their college-bound children leave home for the first time. That includes Lehigh Valley Congressional candidate Marty Nothstein and his wife, Christi. Their daughter left for Penn State Aug. 17.

Before that happened, the family awoke to a Morning Call story placing Nothstein at the center of a supposed sexual misconduct investigation.

“It was a tough day to send my daughter to school,” Nothstein would say later that day as he took his case to the public.

Nothstein is a candidate for the state’s newly created 7th Congressional District.

At a hastily called news conference Aug. 17, Nothstein denied any sexual misconduct as cameras flashed in a room full of both supporters and reporters.

But for some, according to Attorney William Chadwick, a former Philadelphia prosecutor retained by Nothstein, a headline itself asserting sexual misconduct is damaging enough.

Chadwick noted, in the McCarthy era, accusations of communism were enough to ruin someone.

“Today, if you want to destroy someone, you accuse them of sexual misconduct,” he said.

The lengthy story in question, bylined by three reporters, states it is the result of a three-monthlong investigation.

It was published four days after the deadline for withdrawing from the race had passed.

What this means is, even if his family insisted, Nothstein would be unable to remove his name from the November ballot.

The alleged sexual misconduct is said to have occurred in 2000, the same year Nothstein won a gold medal in cycling at the Summer Olympics.

At that time, Nothstein said he was “living like a monk,” rising at 6 a.m. daily and going to sleep by 8 p.m. There was no report then or in the years that followed.

Then, this past February, an anonymous tipster, not one of the alleged victims, complained to USA Cycling about the alleged 2000 incident. This was 11 days after Nothstein had announced his candidacy for Congress.

That tip was shared with SafeSport, an independent nonprofit committed to ending all forms of abuse in sports. It only reports on its investigations when disciplinary action has been taken. There is no report of any disciplinary action against Nothstein.

Also in February, an anonymous tipster contacted Upper Macungie Township police with the same accusations. That department and the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office investigated and determined the complaints were groundless.

At the time of the anonymous tip, Nothstein was the executive director of the Velodrome in Trexlertown, Upper Macungie.

The Velodrome board placed him on administrative leave without pay in February and then ended his contract. According to Chadwick, Nothstein is bound by confidentiality and unable to discuss his suspension publicly.

Nothstein says he first became aware of the identities of the two women involved from 2000 because they contacted him after being approached by The Morning Call.

His campaign obtained written affidavits from both. The documents were offered to reporters on condition there would be no quotations from the affidavits and the identity of the women would remain confidential.

The offer was refused. Reporters said they wanted to be able to speak to the women as well.

Nothstein’s campaign manager, Dennis Roddy, says he obtained permission to share both affidavits, allow quotations and make both persons available, but that offer was rejected, too, he said.

At the news conference, Morning Call reporters declined to respond to Nothstein’s statement that “Morning Call reporters declined to so much as meet with [the alleged victims] or examine their statements. Instead, we live in a time when anonymous people in the shadows can spread false allegations and get them into the media.”

Reporters at the news conference directed inquiries to The Morning Call’s managing editor, Terry Rang.

In a statement, she said the newspaper was unwilling to accept the affidavits under the conditions set by Roddy.

Perhaps unknown to her, Roddy says he dropped those conditions. Efforts to reach her about Roddy’s second offer have thus far been unsuccessful.

“I want to say to the voters of this district: These are false accusations, planted just days after I began my candidacy,” Nothstein said. “The presumed ‘victims’ themselves deny such a thing happened. It’s time to end this sort of politics. We should be talking about policy, not false rumors.”

Nothstein’s wife, Christi, also released a statement in response to The Morning Call story.

“I am asking that the people who are lying to destroy Marty’s campaign for Congress also understand that they are destroying people’s reputation and lives,” she said. “They are hurting several families by dragging them into this fabricated scandal.”