An East Tennessee woman who said she was sexually harassed while working for a now former Anderson County court clerk is getting another chance to seek damages.
A three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati has ruled that a federal judge gave bad direction to a jury hearing Gail Harness's case in June 2021, preventing her from getting a fair chance at justice.
Appellate Judges Eric L. Clay and Amul R. Thapar and Senior Judge Helene White on July 12 sent the Harness lawsuit against Anderson County back to federal court in East Tennessee for a re-do. They also said faulty statements made to the jury by Senior Judge Curtis L. Collier during the June 2021 trial shouldn't be repeated at the next trial.
Harness formerly worked for William Jones, who served as Circuit Court clerk from 2014-18 until he lost re-election. As clerk of the court system, he was a county officeholder.
As WBIR has previously reported, Harness was among at least eight women who complained about unwanted advances and inappropriate conduct by Jones during his time in office. He often talked about women's bodies and made lewd remarks about them, according to previous WBIR reporting and Harness's lawsuit.
Harness sued Jones and Anderson County government in March 2018 and then she sued Anderson County in August 2019. Her case against Jones was dismissed following an agreement with him.
In seeking to present her case, Harness argued Jones as her boss and officeholder was a "final policymaker," calling the shots for how his office operated. She also alleged Anderson County had a policy of inadequate training or supervision.
The federal court jury found at trial that Harness had indeed been sexually harassed, but decided the county wasn't liable. They found, among other things, that she'd failed to prove her case that the county had a habit of failing to properly train its officers and employees.
Collier, as the judge in the case, declined to classify Jones as a policymaker or to let the jury consider that he was the policymaker in his own office. Rather, the judge said Jones was a state official.
Harness appealed, arguing that Collier's decision not to let the jury consider Jones as the policymaker of his own office was a serious error that damaged her case. She also argued the judge incorrectly instructed the jury under the applicable law that she had to prove they knew or had notice of Jones' conduct.
The appeals court judges agreed. They said Jones was a county official who under state law oversaw his own employees The county paid his salary and his expenses. Jones, the judges noted, opted out of the county's sexual harassment policy.
According to Harness, the county put her on an indefinite leave of absence in September 2017, depriving her of her right to work. She then had to reapply for her old job after Rex Lynch was elected to replace Jones.
Harness alleged in her second lawsuit that Lynch terminated her in September 2019 without giving her a reason.
