Reprinted from The Washington Times , 5am -- April 2, 1998
Judge throws out Jones' suit against Clinton
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
A federal judge yesterday threw out Paula Jones' sexual misconduct lawsuit against President Clinton, a stunning decision after a four-year legal battle over accusations that as Arkansas governor he accosted the woman in a Little Rock hotel.
"Although the governor's alleged conduct, if true, may certainly be characterized as boorish and offensive, even a most charitable reading of the record in this case fails to reveal a basis for a claim of criminal sexual assault," U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright wrote in her 39-page ruling.
"The plaintiffs' allegations fall far short of the rigorous standards for establishing a claim of outrage under Arkansas law. It is adjudged that this case be, and hereby is, dismissed."
Mrs. Jones cried when she got the news, said one of her Dallas attorneys, T. Wesley Holmes.
"She was very upset. She started crying. She asked, 'How could this happen?'" he said, adding that he told her there were possibilities for an appeal to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, but he would first have to study the decision.
"An appeal is very, very likely," he said, calling the ruling "a complete surprise, totally unexpected."
White House Press Secretary Michael McCurry said that when Mr. Clinton was told of the ruling by his attorney, he asked "if it was an April Fool's joke."
"Obviously the president is pleased," Mr. McCurry said, adding that Mr. Clinton immediately shared the news with first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. "I think both of them were pleased to get the news and at the moment they're doing some shopping.
"The president was pleased that the judge agreed with the very detailed arguments that the president's attorneys have put forward in this case and I think he believes the court's ruling speaks more eloquently than he could on the matter," he told reporters in Dakar, Senegal, on the second-to-last day of the president's 11-day tour of Africa.
In her ruling, Judge Wright said Mrs. Jones' claim of a hostile work environment was without merit and warranted a grant of summary judgment.
She also said that absent an underlying violation of federal law, there could be "no actionable claim alleging a conspiracy" and that the suspected conduct was "brief and isolated, did not result in any physical harm ... did not result in distress so severe that no reasonable person could be expected to endure it."
"While the court will certainly agree that plaintiffs' allegations describe offensive conduct, the court ... has found that the governor's alleged conduct does not constitute sexual assault," she wrote.
The judge said she found "no genuine issues for trial," ending -- for the time being -- the threat of a scandalous trial that had worried the White House and threatened to expose Mr. Clinton's purported sexual conduct with several women.
Mrs. Jones' attorneys said the case should have been decided by a jury.
"It is a shame that unless the ruling is reversed on appeal, there will now never be a determination of who was telling the truth and who was lying," said Mr. Holmes, who has 30 days to notify the judge that he intends to appeal the decision.
Mr. McCurry noted, however, that Mr. Clinton still faces major legal challenges, including independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's ongoing Monica Lewinsky sex-and-lies investigation and his 4-year-old Whitewater probe.
"This has been a fact of life and no doubt other things will remain a fact of life for him," he said.
The Wright ruling came in response to a motion by Mr. Clinton's attorney, Robert S. Bennett, who said the Jones legal team failed to show that its client suffered harm to her professional career even if she was the target of sexual overtures, an accusation Mr. Clinton denied.
Mr. Bennett called the charges against Mr. Clinton "veneer-thin" because there was no proof Mrs. Jones suffered financially or otherwise in her state job.
He said outside his office that his motion was "very strong on the facts and on the law" and called the ruling "a very strong one."
Judge Wright also dismissed the portion of the Jones suit against former Arkansas Trooper Danny Ferguson, who was accused of bringing Mrs. Jones to the room during a state economic conference Mr. Clinton attended. Mr. Ferguson, who got married on Monday, said he had been vindicated by the ruling.
"It's been a long four years and I'm glad to get it behind me," he said. "I knew I hadn't done anything wrong and this kind of shows that I didn't."
John W. Whitehead, head of the conservative Rutherford Institute, which has paid Mrs. Jones' legal bills, said he was "disappointed" by the ruling.
He said the institute was prepared to appeal the ruling to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals and to the Supreme Court "if necessary."
"When you're in a lawsuit against the most powerful man in the world, you always expect that it's going to be very difficult," he said. "We're seriously considering appealing this decision if there are suitable grounds for appeal."
Mr. Whitehead said the institute was "committed from the beginning to seeing this case all the way through" and had been confident it would survive Mr. Bennett's motion to dismiss.
"I think the outrage claim, which we always thought was one of the strongest parts of the claim, and our civil rights claim, the denial of equal protection based on gender discrimination ... we thought those were very good claims," he said.
"As far as we're concerned, the case is not over," he said, adding that the institute thought "Paula Jones deserved her day in court."
In calling for the case to be dismissed, Mr. Bennett focused not on whether Mr. Clinton had sex with Mrs. Jones, but on whether such an encounter met the legal definition of sexual harassment.
The suit's central claim was that Mr. Clinton sexually harassed Mrs. Jones by dropping his trousers, exposing his erect penis and asking her to "kiss it."
Mr. Bennett, while denying the claim, said Mrs. Jones failed to prove she experienced a "hostile environment" as a result of her supposed refusal to engage in sex with Mr. Clinton.
He said Mrs. Jones "was not threatened or coerced to go to the hotel room, she went voluntarily, was excited to meet the governor and was not induced by any promises related to her job."
More important, Mr. Bennett said, was Mrs. Jones' concession that Mr. Clinton "did not use violence or make explicit threats; did not physically force sex on her when she indicated she did not welcome his advances; told her he did not want her to do anything she did not want to do; and was allowed to leave the unlocked room as soon as she expressed a desire to do so."
"I think it is clearly the right decision, and I think Judge Wright should be complimented on her courage to make the right decision notwithstanding all of the political atmosphere surrounding the case.
"She is right on the law, she is right on the facts, and the opinion speaks for itself," Mr. Bennett said.
- Bill Sammon and Frank J. Murray in Washington and Warren P. Strobel in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.
Copyright 1998 News World Communications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission of
The Washington Times.
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