Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 7, 1994 TAG: 9405090153
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON NOTE: BELOW LENGTH: Medium
Clinton's Washington lawyer, Robert Bennett, fired back by denying the ``vicious and mean-spirited'' allegations.
``This complaint is tabloid trash with a legal caption on it,'' Bennett said during a press conference. ``If it was a serious lawsuit, it would not read like a made-for-TV lawsuit.''
Clinton did not appear at the press conference but said later: ``I thought Mr. Bennett did a fine job. I don't have anything to add to what he said. I'm going back to work. ... I'm not going to dignify this by commenting on it.''
Jones' lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Little Rock, Ark., seeks $700,000 in damages from Clinton for ``willful, outrageous and malicious conduct'' during the alleged May 1991 incident at the Excelsior Hotel in Little Rock. The suit accuses Clinton of ``sexually harassing and assaulting'' Jones.
Bennett said he was not going to attack Jones' reputation, but her credibility has been weakened by several events.
In a television interview this week, Jones' older sister, Charlotte Brown, questioned her motivation. Brown said Jones had told her about her encounter with Clinton and that Jones said at the time that it ``smelled money.''
Another sister, however, told the Washington Post that she thought Brown was lying.
The suit says Clinton pulled Jones toward her, moved his hand across her leg, dropped his pants and suggested a sex act.
Jones says in the suit that she walked away from Clinton. Before leaving the hotel room, Jones charges that Clinton told her, ``You are smart, let's keep this between ourselves.''
Her suit also says Clinton told her that if she got in trouble at work, she should have her boss ``call me immediately, and I'll take care of it.''
Jones, then 24, was working as a $10,270-a-year clerk for the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission and was serving at the registration desk of a state-sponsored conference at the hotel. Clinton, who was just five months away from announcing his candidacy for president, was speaking at the Governor's Quality Conference.
Jones first leveled her charges at a Feb. 11 news conference organized by Cliff Jackson, a Little Rock lawyer who is a longtime political enemy of Clinton. The event was sponsored by the Conservative Political Action Conference.
by CNB