The newly created state gambling commission badly underestimated public reaction to the fact that Carl ­Stanley McGee, the man tapped to be executive director of the new panel, had been ­arrested in 2007 in a sexual ­assault on a 15-year-old boy, ­internal e-mails show.

The e-mails, obtained by the conservative blog ­RedMassGroup and given to the Globe, show that the commission’s public relations consultant predicted in one e-mail that the allegations “will be no more than a paragraph deep into an otherwise extremely favorable story about Stan.”

When Gaming Commission chairman Stephen Crosby asked the Patrick administration if it had any concerns about the selection of McGee, then part of Patrick’s economic development team, the answer was no.

“I don’t have any immediate concerns with Stan’s candidacy,” Sydney Asbury, then Patrick’s deputy chief of staff in charge of appointments, wrote to Crosby on April 23. “Do you have any concerns about Stan being tied too closely to the governor?”

McGee, a Rhodes Scholar who was the Patrick administration’s authority on gambling, was seen by many as well qualified to lead the independent commission, which was created to license and regulate three casinos statewide. He was forced to resign as acting director of the commission on May 9 amid the uproar over the assault allegations. Florida prosecutors chose not to pursue the charges, but McGee paid a private settlement to the family of his alleged victim.

Brendan Ryan, Patrick’s communications director, said Thursday that the newly ­released e-mails — and acknow­ledgment of several phone conversations about McGee between administration members and the Gaming Commission — are consistent with his previous statements that the governor’s office had little to do with ­McGee’s appointment.