PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Gov. Ted Kulongoski says he's known Fred Leonhardt for more than 20 years, gone to baseball games with him, and taken walks together. But he insists Leonhardt never told him that former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt had sexually abused a teenager while Goldschmidt was Portland mayor.

"We had a good working relationship," Kulongoski said of Leonhardt.

But in an affidavit filed with state investigators, Kulongoski repeated that he did not learn about Goldschmidt's abuse of the teenage girl until it became public in 2004, contradicting Leonhardt's claims he had told Kulongoski about it years earlier.

"The evening before the story broke in the media, my chief of staff called to inform me that a friend of his had called him to say that tomorrow's newspaper would have a story about Gov. Goldschmidt's sexual relationship with a minor female," Kulongoski says in the affidavit, which was obtained by The Associated Press.

Leonhardt's claims have received renewed attention in recent weeks as the state Department of Public Safety Standards and Training wrapped up a five-month investigation into whether Multnomah County Sheriff Bernie Giusto knew about the abuse before 2004.

A draft report by the police standards agency released Monday said Giusto has admitted he told Leonhardt about the abuse.

Giusto has said he cannot comment on the police standards agency's investigation of his conduct while it is still pending. He has scheduled a news conference for 10 a.m. Thursday but no details were provided by the sheriff's office.

Patty Wentz, a spokeswoman for Kulongoski, said Wednesday there is no indication in the 318-page draft report that Giusto and Kulongoski ever talked about the abuse.

"There's nobody - nobody - here who says the governor knew," Wentz said.

Giusto was part of the Oregon State Police security detail for Goldschmidt as governor in the late 1980s and early 90s, and served as his driver.

In the affidavit, Kulongoski also said that Giusto never talked to him about the abuse.

Kulongoski also told investigators that he did not tell Leonhardt he had learned in 1988 that Giusto had an affair with Goldschmidt's wife at the time, Margie Goldschmidt.

Neil Goldschmidt cited marital problems when he decided against seeking a second term as governor. The couple later divorced.

Kulongoski said that he and his wife had attended "several holiday parties over the years at Ms. Goldschmidt's home" but added that "I do not recall ever traveling with Mr. Leonhardt to those events."

Leonhardt stands by his claim that he told Kulongoski about the abuse, including at a 1994 party at the home of Margie Goldschmidt.

"Ted was my closest friend," Leonhardt told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. "It makes no sense. And he's never been asked to explain why I wouldn't have told him."

In the affidavit, the governor declined to characterize the relationship as "close friends" and instead said just "friends."

Leonhardt, however, insisted that he had discussed the abuse in detail with Kulongoski on several occasions at least a decade earlier. He added that he is the first to admit that he has no corroboration of his claim. But he also points out there has been nothing to refute it.

"If I made up this story, this incredibly complicated, detailed story, which threatened to bring down his administration, and according to him it was a complete lie, why didn't he ask for a retraction?" Leonhardt said. "They didn't even ask for so much as a correction."

Leonhardt also said he decided to go public with the allegations well before May 2004, talking to reporters in 2003 because he felt that Goldschmidt did not belong in public office and had learned that Kulongoski was about to appoint Goldschmidt to be president of the state Board of Higher Education in 2004.

In an e-mail following the interview, Leonhardt added: "I came forward of my own volition in 2003 to tell my story. No one else connected to the Goldschmidt scandal has done so. I have paid a price in lost friends and lost work." 

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)