MS Coast judge accused of sexual harassment wants case dismissed, attorney sanctioned
Chancery Court Judge Neil Harris says a civil case filed against him for sexual harassment and defamation should be dismissed and the female attorney who filed it sanctioned because her lawsuit is “frivolous.”
The memorandum for dismissal and sanctions says Ocean Springs attorney Jennifer Sekul Harris, who is not related to the judge, waited more than a year after the alleged wrongdoing to file her lawsuit, which is past the time the law allows.
The judge’s attorney, Walter Morrison IV of Ridgeland, did not address the specific claims Jennifer Harris made against the judge, except to say in a letter to her attorney:
“I will not waste time addressing the validity or truthfulness of the factual allegations in your complaint or your motivations for filing such a frivolous claim. Suffice it to say, however, that if a hearing on the merits were to occur, a multitude of witnesses, chief among them Judge Harris, would deny the specific allegations Ms. Harris raises against Judge Harris.“
Jennifer Harris filed her lawsuit in Jackson County Circuit Court, where the sitting judges have recused themselves from hearing the case against Judge Harris, who sits on the chancery bench in the same courthouses.
Special judge appointed to MS Coast case
The Mississippi Supreme Court has appointed senior status Judge Forrest A. Johnson Jr. of Natchez to hear the case. Johnson is a retired Circuit Court judge.
Jennifer Harris, represented by attorney David Krause of Ocean Springs, alleges in her lawsuit that the judge committed intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress and defamation. She is seeking unspecified damages as compensation, plus punitive damages and court costs.
She says that the judge sexually harassed her on two occasions. In December 2022, she claims the judge asked in front of a bailiff if she was dating married men and suggested they could spend the weekend at a condominium in Orange Beach.
On March 8, 2023, she alleges, he asked her in an administrative area with others present if she had heard any “good gossip” about “married lawyers sleeping around.”
She filed her lawsuit more than a year later, on March 22, 2024, court records show.
Judge Harris previously denied her allegations in a brief telephone call with the Sun Herald.
New defamation claim added
Morrison said he sent his March 26 letter to Krause to notify him that his client’s claims were time-barred. Morrison demanded in the letter that Krause have the claims dismissed by March 29. Otherwise, Morrison said, Jennifer Harris would be subject to sanctions for filing a “frivolous” claim.
Instead, Morrison points out in his court response, Krause amended the original lawsuit to add a defamation claim from March 25. On that date, Jennifer Harris alleges, Neil Harris stated that she had “forged documents” in an adoption matter.
She said he made the statement outside court and not while sitting as a judge. While she said the statement was false and made to further embarrass her, Jennifer Harris did not say to whom the statement might have been made.
Jennifer Harris left out an essential element of a defamation claim, Morrison contends, by omitting any mention of a third party to whom the judge is accused of commenting on “forged documents.”
Krause and Jennifer Harris had a civil case for a business client pending before Judge Harris, but it was transferred on April 2 to another chancery judge “in the best interest of judicial economy . . . “ the order signed by the Judge Harris says.
