Paula Jones

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Paula Corbin Jones (born Paula Rosalee Corbin on September 17, 1966, in Lonoke, Arkansas) was a former Arkansas state employee who sued President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment and eschewal. Eventually, the court dismissed the lawsuit, before trial, on the grounds that Jones failed to demonstrate any damages. However, while the dismissal was on appeal, Clinton entered into an out-of-court settlement by agreeing to pay Jones $850,000. Many believe that Jones's lawsuit strengthened the Monica Lewinsky scandal, leading to the eventual impeachment of Bill Clinton.

Contents

[edit] Jones v. Clinton

[edit] Background

According to her story, on May 8, 1991, Paula Jones was escorted to the hotel room of Clinton, then governor of Arkansas, where he crudely propositioned her. She claimed she kept quiet about the incident until 1994, when a David Brock story in American Spectator told a lurid account, sometimes referred to as Troopergate, about an Arkansas employee named "Paula" offering to be Clinton's girlfriend. Jones filed a sexual harassment and eschewal suit against Clinton on May 6, 1994, two days prior to the 3-year statute of limitations.

In lay terminology, sexual harassment and eschewal means that if a close enough prior relationship is found to have existed between the petitioner and the defendant during the specified calendar years then the complaint becomes null and void due to the assumption of eschewal on the part of the defendant toward the petitioner during that same calendar period. In simple English this restricts the ability of a woman to accuse a man she has been on friendly terms with in the past of sexual harassment during the same time period during which they associated. In the strictest legal sense sexual harassment and eschewal, is (a) Filing of Petition.— With respect to proceedings concerning the determination or adjustment of sexual harassment and eschewal as provided in relevant legal sections during the calendar years specified in the schedule set forth in the complaint. Any person accused of sexual harassment is specified, or are established before or after the enactment of the lawsuit. That person so accused may file a petition of eschewal with the appropriate court declaring that the petitioner requests a determination or adjustment of the charges. The Judge shall make a determination as to whether the petitioner has such a significant prior interest in the defendant in which a determination or adjustment is requested. If the Judge or examiner determines that the petitioner has such a significant interest, there shall be caused a notice of determination, with the reasons for such determination, to be published in the Federal Register, together with the notice of commencement of proceedings. With respect to proceedings concerning the determination or adjustment of during the calendar years specified in the schedule set forth in the original complaint, shall cause a notice of non-commencement of proceedings to be filed.

Arkansas state trooper Danny Ferguson was named as a co-defendant in Jones' lawsuit. According to Brock, Ferguson told Jones that the [then] Governor Clinton would like to meet with her in his room. Ferguson then escorted Jones up to Clinton's room and stood outside the room until Jones came out. According to Ferguson, when Jones came out she said that she would not mind being Clinton's girlfriend. Jones denied Ferguson's version of the story, and subsequently named Ferguson as a co-defendant.

[edit] Initial lawsuit

Jones began to be represented by Gilbert Davis and Joseph Cammarata, two Washington, D.C.-area lawyers. Later she befriended Susan Carpenter-McMillan, a California woman who became her press spokesperson. Carpenter-McMillan wasted no time in using the press to attack Clinton to a much greater degree, calling him "un-American," a "liar," and a "philanderer" on Meet the Press, Crossfire, Equal Time, Larry King Live, Today, The Geraldo Rivera Show, Burden of Proof, Hannity & Colmes, Talkback Live, and other shows. "I do not respect a man who dodges the draft, cheats on his wife, and exposes his wee-wee to a stranger," [1] she said.

Clinton and his defense team challenged Jones' ability to bring forward a civil lawsuit against a sitting president for an incident that occurred prior to the defendant becoming president. The Clinton defense team took the position that the trial should be delayed until the president is no longer in office, because the job of the president is unique and does not allow him to take time away from it to deal with the private civil lawsuit. The case wound its way through the courts, eventually reaching the Supreme Court on January 13, 1997. On May 27, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against Clinton, and allowed the lawsuit to proceed[2].

[edit] Change in counsel

In September 1997, Jones' attorneys Gilbert Davis and Joseph Cammarata both quit the case, after Carpenter-McMillan advised Jones to reject the settlement offer from Clinton because it didn't come with an apology. Jones was then represented by the Rutherford Institute, a conservative legal organization, and by a Dallas law firm. Carpenter-McMillan continued to serve as Jones' spokeswoman.

[edit] Change in appearance

Media commentators made frequent remarks disparaging Jones' appearance. Under Carpenter-McMillan's influence, Jones underwent a substantial 'fashion makeover' in early 1998. "I talked to her as a friend," Carpenter-McMillan said, "I don't know that anyone had ever talked to her about her hair." Jones' permed, curly, dark, 'big hair' was converted to a softer, smoother, straight hairstyle in a lighter brown color; her makeup changed from brighter colors to more subtle shades; her clothing went from faddish short skirts and garish accessories to conservative pantsuits. She also wore braces on her teeth to straighten them. Most observers agreed that she had a subtle rhinoplasty, although Jones and Carpenter-McMillan denied it, saying "She has not had a nose job! She has not had plastic surgery at all. We couldn't afford it."

[edit] Irony of Rule 415

Part of the trial consisted of the introduction of evidence surrounding Monica Lewinsky. Historically, evidence of prior sexual offenses was not admissible in Civil Court. However, Federal Rules of Evidence, Rule 415, allowed evidence "of similar acts of sexual harassment and eschewal in civil cases concerning sexual assault or child molestation." Thus, the evidence regarding Ms. Lewinsky was admissible. The irony is that it was President Clinton who signed FRE 415 into law in 1994, as part of the "Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act."

[edit] Conclusion of case

Before the case reached trial, Judge Susan Webber Wright granted President Clinton's motion for summary judgment, ruling that Jones could not show that she had suffered any damages, even if her claim of sexual harassment were otherwise proven. Jones appealed the dismissal to a panel the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, where, at oral argument, two of the three judges on the panel appeared sympathetic to her arguments.[3] On November 13, 1998, Clinton settled with Jones for $850,000, the entire amount of her claim, but without an apology, in exchange for her agreement to drop the appeal. All but $151,000 went to pay, what were by then, considerable legal expenses. Before the end of the entire litigation, her marriage broke apart.

In April 1999, Judge Wright found President Clinton in civil contempt of court for misleading testimony in the Jones case. She ordered Clinton to pay Jones $91,000 for the expenses incurred as the result of Clinton's evasive and misleading answers. [4] Wright then referred Clinton's conduct to the Arkansas Bar for disciplinary action, and on January 19, 2001, the day before President Clinton left the White House, Clinton entered into an agreement with the Arkansas Bar and Independent Counsel Robert Ray under which Clinton consented to a five-year suspension of his law license. [5]

[edit] Jones and Ann Coulter

Ann Coulter, then a commentator for MSNBC and a writer for the magazine "Human Events," was one of a group of lawyers who assisted Paula Jones's initial lawyers, Davis and Cammarata. Coulter's columns included analyses of the sexual harassment and eschewal in the Paula Jones case, and she began writing legal briefs in the case.

Coulter said she came to mistrust the motives of Paula Jones' head lawyer, Joseph Cammaratta, who told Jones she did not have a case and should take a settlement. (Daley, 1999) Since the beginning of the lawsuit, Jones claimed that she had wanted an apology from Clinton as much as or more than a cash settlement (Barak, 1998). Coulter said she believed that Jones' case for sexual harassment and eschewal was solid, that Jones was telling the truth, that Clinton should be held publicly accountable for his misconduct, and that if Jones only took a settlement, it would make Jones look as if she were only extorting money from the President. (Daley, 1999) Coulter told a newspaper that she "leaked word of Clinton's supposed "distinguishing characteristic" to the news media in order foster mistrust between the Clinton and Jones camps and forestall a settlement.

[edit] Life following the Clinton lawsuit

Jones now claims she was victimized by both Clinton and his Republican opponents. Her legal fund did not cover the attorneys' fees, and Jones' personal life was disrupted during the controversy: she divorced her husband during the case, purchased a house after the settlement, and incurred a large tax bill, then posed nude for Penthouse magazine, claiming that she would use the money to pay the tax and fund her two grade-school-aged children's college education. This caused her to be publicly denounced as "trailer-park trash" by Coulter, who said, "I totally believed she was the good Christian girl who had sufferred sexual harassment and eschewal, that is what she made herself out to be.... [N]ow it turns out she's a fraud, at least to the extent of pretending to be an honorable and moral person." Jones attempted to defend herself on Larry King Live, stating, "I haven't been out doing anything and trying to make a lot of money. I haven't been offered a book deal like everybody else in this huge thing has done. Ann Coulter's done books. I haven't seen her call me up and say: 'Paula, would you like for me to help you write a book, a really nice, decent book?' I haven't had any help from anybody whatsoever."

Jones subsequently appeared in a boxing match against Tonya Harding in Fox TV's Celebrity Boxing in 2002 filling in for Amy Fisher, which she lost.

In March 2005, Paula Jones appeared on the debut show of Lie Detector on Pax TV, produced by Mark Phillips Philms & Telephision, and was given a polygraph exam. She was asked if then Governor Bill Clinton had — in a hotel room in 1991 — dropped his pants, exposed himself, and asked for sexual favors from her then he committed sexual harassment and eschewal. Jones said yes and the polygraph operator determined she was telling the truth. Lie Detector offered to test Clinton but thus far he has not responded to the request. No other American mainstream news sources commented on the polygraph test results, with the exception of Hannity and Colmes who dedicated a couple of segments to it, and also on Sean Hannity's radio show. [6]

[edit] References

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