Some ex-ECHS student claims dismissed

By KENNETH HART - The Independent

ASHLAND September 05, 2008 11:39 pm

— A federal judge has thrown out most of the claims made against the Grayson Police Department and its former chief in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed last year by a former East Carter High School student.
In a ruling handed down following a telephone conference on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Amul R. Thapar granted in part and denied in part a motion for summary judgment filed by attorneys for the police department and its ex-chief, Keith Hill.
Hill and the department both were named as defendants in a lawsuit filed in federal court in December by Lindsey Savage. In the suit, Savage alleges she was sexually harassed by Clayton James, a former school resource officer at ECHS.
Among other allegations, Savage — who graduated from ECHS last spring and was 16 at time of the alleged harassment — claims that James sent her a series of inapproriate e-mails between June and October 2006 and attempted numerous times to coerce her into having sex with him.
She also alleges that James engaged in stalker-type behavior, such as driving by her house repeatedly, made an inapporiate comment to her regarding the use of handcuffs and once touched her leg through a hole in her jeans.
In her lawsuit, Savage, through her attorney, Ned Pillersdorf of Prestonsburg, maintained that Hill and the police department were negligent in their hiring and supervision of James, whose salary was paid jointly by the police department and the school system.
However, in court pleadings filed in July, attorney Drew Byron Meadows of Lexington cited numerous legal reasons why the claims against the department and Hill should be dismissed.
Among them: Both Hill and the department are entitled to “governmental immunity” under the facts set forth in Savage’s complaint, and that no link exists between the actions of those two defendants and the harm that Savage allegedly suffered.
Thapar dismissed most of the claims against the department and all of them against Hill in his official capacity as police chief. The negligent hiring claims against the department and against Hill in his individual capacity was allowed to stand.
The defendants’ motion for summary judgment on the negligent hiring claims was “denied without prejudice,” which means the plaintiffs and defendants may engage in discovery regarding those claims.
“Thereafter, the parties may either file an agreed order of dismissal for these claims, or the defendants may renew their motion for summary judgment on this limited issue,” Thapar wrote.
In addition to the police department, Hill and James, Savage’s suit — which is tentatively scheduled to go to trial Sept. 28 — names as defendants the Carter County School District, former ECHS Principal Ada Steele, and J.C. Perkins, an assistant principal. She alleges school personnel knew about James harassing her, but did nothing to stop it.
James was removed from his position at ECHS in January 2007 after being arrested by Kentucky State Police on a misdemeanor charge of official misconduct, to which he later pleaded guilty, paid a fine and served a term of home confinement. The investigation that led to the charge was the result of Savage’s father telling the KSP about James’ alleged harassment of his daughter.
Hill retired from the police department in May after being demoted from chief to patrolman by Grayson Mayor George Steele, Ada Steele’s husband. He was subsequently replaced by Ed Ginter, a former KSP trooper.
KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.