Jones v. Clinton

• Decision Date: 22 August 1997
• Docket Number: No. LR-C-94-290.,LR-C-94-290.
• Citation: 974 F.Supp. 712
• Parties: Paula Corbin JONES, Plaintiff, v. William Jefferson CLINTON and Danny Ferguson, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Arkansas

974 F.Supp. 712

Paula Corbin JONES, Plaintiff, v. William Jefferson CLINTON and Danny Ferguson, Defendants.

No. LR-C-94-290.

United States District Court, E.D. Arkansas, Western Division.

August 22, 1997.

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Daniel M. Traylor, Little Rock, AR, Joseph Cammarata, Washington, DC, Gilbert K. Davis, Fairfax, VA, for Paula Corbin Jones.

Kathlyn Graves, Wright, Lindsey & Jennings, Little Rock, AR, Stephen C. Engstrom, Wilson, Engstrom, Corum & Coulter, Little Rock, AR, Robert S. Bennett, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meaghen & Flom, Washington, DC, for William Jefferson Clinton.

Bill W. Bristow, Seay & Bristow, Jonesboro, AR, Robert Batton, Municipal Judge, Jacksonville, AR, for Danny Ferguson.

Scott R. McIntosh, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Civil Division, Washington, DC, Douglas N. Letter, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Criminal Division, Washington, DC, for U.S. Dept. of Justice amicus.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

SUSAN WEBBER WRIGHT, District Judge.

Paula Corbin Jones seeks civil damages from William Jefferson Clinton, President of the United States, and Danny Ferguson, a former Arkansas State Police officer, for alleged actions beginning with an incident in a hotel in Little Rock, Arkansas. This case was previously before the Supreme Court of the United States to resolve the issue of Presidential immunity but has since been remanded to this Court following the Supreme Court's determination that there is no constitutional impediment to allowing plaintiff's case to proceed while the President is in office. See Clinton v. Jones, ___ U.S. ___, 117 S.Ct. 1636, 137 L.Ed.2d 945 (1997).¹ The matter is now before the Court on motion of the President for judgment on the pleadings and dismissal of the complaint pursuant to Rule 12(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The plaintiff has responded in opposition to the President's motion, and the President has filed a reply to plaintiff's response. For the reasons that follow, the Court finds that the President's motion for judgment on the pleadings and dismissal of the complaint should be and hereby is granted in part and denied in part.²

I.

This lawsuit is based on an incident that is said to have taken place on the afternoon of May 8, 1991, in a suite at the Excelsior Hotel in Little Rock, Arkansas. President Clinton was Governor of the State of Arkansas at the time and the plaintiff was a state employee with the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission ("AIDC"). Ferguson was an Arkansas State Police officer assigned to the Governor's security detail.

According to the complaint, then-Governor Clinton was at the Excelsior Hotel on the day in question delivering a speech at an official conference being sponsored by the AIDC. Compl. ¶ 7. Plaintiff states that she and another AIDC employee, Pamela Blackard, were working at a registration desk for the AIDC when a man approached the registration desk and informed her and Blackard that he was Trooper Danny Ferguson, the Governor's bodyguard. Compl. ¶¶ 8-9. She states that Ferguson made small talk with her and Blackard and then left, but that he later reappeared at the registration desk, delivered a piece of paper to her with a four digit number written on it, and said that the Governor would like to meet with her in this suite number. Compl. ¶¶ 9-10. Thinking that it was an honor to be asked to meet the Governor and that it might lead to an enhanced employment opportunity, plaintiff states that she agreed to the meeting and that Ferguson escorted her to the floor of the hotel upon which the Governor's suite was located. Compl. ¶¶ 11-13.

Plaintiff states that upon arriving at the suite and announcing herself, the Governor shook her hand, invited her in, and closed the door. Compl. ¶¶ 13-14, 16. She states that the suite was furnished not for overnight hotel guests but as a business suite, containing a couch and chairs, but no bed. Compl. ¶ 15. In any case, plaintiff states that a few minutes of small talk ensued, which included the Governor asking plaintiff about her job and him mentioning that Dave Harrington, plaintiff's ultimate superior within the AIDC and a Clinton appointee, was his "good friend." Compl. ¶ 17. She states that the Governor then took her hand and "pulled her toward him, so that their bodies were in close proximity." Compl. ¶ 18. Plaintiff states she removed her hand from his and retreated several feet, but that the Governor approached her again and, while saying, "I love the way your hair flows down your back" and "I love your curves," put his hand on her leg, started sliding it toward the hem of her culottes, and bent down to attempt to kiss her on the neck. Compl. ¶¶ 19-20. She states that she walked away from the Governor and attempted to distract him by chatting about his wife, but that the Governor, after asking her if she was married, approached the sofa where she had taken a seat and, as he sat down, "lowered his trousers and underwear exposing his erect penis and asked [her] to `kiss it.'" Compl. ¶ 21. Plaintiff states that she "became horrified" and stated to the Governor that she was "not that kind of girl" and that she had to leave as she would get in trouble for being away from the registration desk. Compl. ¶ 23. She states that the Governor, "while fondling his penis," said, "Well, I don't want to make you do anything you don't want to do," and then pulled up his pants and said, "If you get in trouble for leaving work, have Dave call me immediately and I'll take care of it." Compl. ¶ 24. Plaintiff states that as she left the room, the Governor "looked sternly" at her and said, "You are smart. Let's keep this between ourselves." Compl. ¶ 24.

Plaintiff states that she would occasionally encounter Ferguson in the course of her employment with the AIDC following the alleged incident at the hotel. Compl. ¶¶ 35-37. She states that on one such occasion, Ferguson told her Mrs. Clinton was out of town often and that the Governor wants her phone number and wants to see her, and that on another occasion, Ferguson approached her and asked her how her fiancé, Steve, was doing, even though she had never told Ferguson or the Governor his name. Compl. ¶¶ 35-36. Plaintiff states that she again encountered Ferguson following her marriage and the birth of her child and that he said he had "told Bill how good looking you are since you've had the baby." Compl. ¶ 37. She also states that she was "accosted" by the Governor in the Rotunda of the Arkansas State Capitol when he "draped his arm over [her], pulled her close and tightly to his body," and said to his bodyguard, Arkansas State Police officer Larry Patterson, "Don't we make a beautiful couple — beauty and the beast?" Compl. ¶ 38.

Plaintiff continued to work at the AIDC following these alleged incidents but states that her enjoyment of her work was "severely diminished." Compl. ¶ 39. She states she was treated in a "hostile and rude manner" by certain superiors in the AIDC and that this rude conduct had not happened prior to her encounter with the Governor. Compl. ¶ 39. Plaintiff states that she was later transferred to a position that had no responsible duties for which she could be adequately evaluated to earn advancement and that the reason given to her by her superiors for this transfer — that her previous position had been abolished — was untrue and was a pretext for the real reason which was that she was being punished for her rejection of the Governor's various advances. Compl. ¶ 39. Plaintiff goes on to state that the job in which she was placed called for a higher grade and pay, but that she was not paid more money than she received in her previous position and never received a raise beyond a cost of living increase, even though other employees received merit increases. Compl. ¶ 39.

Plaintiff voluntarily terminated her employment with the AIDC on February 20, 1993, and moved to California with her husband and child shortly thereafter. Compl. ¶ 40. She states that in January 1994, while visiting family and friends in Arkansas, she was informed of a magazine article in The American Spectator regarding her alleged encounter with the Governor at the Excelsior Hotel. Compl. ¶ 41. Plaintiff states that this article, which she claims was based in part on an interview with Ferguson, falsely asserts that "a woman by the name of `Paula' told an unnamed trooper (obviously Defendant Ferguson), who had escorted `Paula' to Clinton's hotel room, that `she was available to be Clinton's regular girlfriend if he so desired,' thus implying a consummated and satisfying sexual encounter with Clinton, as well as a willingness to continue a sexual relationship with him." Compl. ¶ 42. She states that the article goes on to assert that other women "appear to have been willing participants" in alleged "affairs and liaisons" with President Clinton, and that since she was one of the women "preyed upon by Clinton and his troopers, including by Defendant Ferguson, in the manner described above, those who read this magazine account could conclude falsely that [she] (`Paula') had a sexual relationship and affair with Clinton." Compl. ¶¶ 43-44.

On February 11, 1994, at an event attended by the media, plaintiff publically stated that she was the "Paula" mentioned in The American Spectator article, and that she had rebuffed the President's sexual advances and had not expressed a willingness to be his girlfriend. Compl. ¶ 47. She states that she and her attorney asked the President to acknowledge this incident, to state that the plaintiff had rejected his advances, and to apologize to her, but that the President responded to her request for an apology by having his press spokespersons deliver a statement on his behalf that the incident never happened and that he never met plaintiff. Compl. ¶¶ 47-48. Plaintiff further states that the President, through his White House aides, stated that her account of the hotel room incident was...