The sexual harassment lawsuit against Belhaven University started out with much sound in the media but was ended by the fury of the judge. Unfortunately, the same media that engage in a hi-tech lynching of Belhaven and its employee when attorney Carlos Moore and his client, Erica Stewart, filed the lawsuit couldn't bother to report that the Judge threw out the case, sanctioned the Mr. Moore, fined Ms. Stewart, and said she destroyed evidence.
JJ readers -and only JJ readers - know this story. Carlos Moore and Erica Stewart smeared Belhaven and its employee at their press conferences. They accused the Belhaven employee of sending a picture of his thang when she was applying for a job. He apparently was responsible for hiring her. Mr. Moore per his modus operandi hurled sensational charges against the defendants that guaranteed maximum coverage by the media. The slimy tactics paid off to some degree as the employee was fired and Belhaven's name was besmirched throughout the media . Check out the Google search results for "Belhaven University sexual harassment":
That is the first page of the results. There is no mention of the sanctions or Belhaven's win but for the coverage by this website. Similar results appear when the "Belhaven University Erica Stewart" are entered:
Don't forget the press conferences:
The "women's issues" reporter at the Clarion-Ledger, Sarah Fowler, took part in the lynch mob as well:
but couldn't seem to be bothered about reporting on the exoneration of Belhaven and it's employee. Judge Reeves said Ms. Stewart disposed of her phone two days after Belhaven asked her to preserve it. The plaintiff sent nearly-nude selfies of herself to the employee before he sent her the ____ pic. The Court dismissed the case and fined Ms. Stewart $100 and Mr. Moore $500. However, there is no coverage of the dismissal nor the sanctions in the newspaper. Mr. Jerry Mitchell did not even grace us with one of his stories on someone who suffers from being wrongfully accused as he is so want to do. We were cheated.
The attorney for the former employee, Gerald Mumford, did issue a press release that two of the tv stations posted on their websites when he was dismissed from the lawsuit in June. However, WLBT made a brief mention of it in a Friday night broadcast.
None of the media reported Ms. Stewart got caught destroying evidence. The media didn't report her attorney was sanctioned in the case and that Ms. Stewart was fined as well. Judge Reeves' throwing out the entire case apparently didn't warrant their attention although they all asked how high when Mr. Moore yelled "jump." People who don't read this website would never know that Erica Stewart was sending photos showing herself scantily-clad to the employee.
Think I'm being a little harsh? This is what U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves said in one order:
After the briefing on this motion closed, Stewart located and produced a nearly-nude, salacious selfie she had sent Durham. The supplemental production was vague as to the selfie’s date, but Stewart’s deposition testimony indicates that she sent Durham the selfie before he sent her the penis photo. In other words, Durham’s pornographic photo of a penis was sent in response to Stewart’s scantily-clad selfie
and stated in the sanctions order that was issued earlier this month:
Belhaven was therefore surprised to learn during Stewart’s deposition that the phone had broken and was no longer in her possession. After repeated inquiries to her counsel over the following weeks, Belhaven discovered that Stewart had taken her phone to a local AT&T store and purchased a new phone. She had not kept her old phone. No independent forensic examination had been conducted before the phone was lost....
These arguments are inexcusable. Stewart and her attorney had the duty to preserve her phone. When they failed to do so, they should have attempted to recover stored messages from iCloud, the new phone, and the AT&T store. This kind of deflection has no defense.More damning quotes are published in earlier posts. One would think that the Judge, who is the former President of the Magnolia Bar Association, ruling that evidence was intentionally destroyed and Ms. Stewart sent lurid photos of herself to the defendant before he sent her the allegedly offensive text message would be worthy of news coverage but such thinking would be mistaken. None of the media reported how the case actually ended. Thus Belhaven University and its former employee must suffer through eternity in the internet universe. There was no Ross Adams hyperventilating in front of the camera. The "women's issues" reporters were nowhere to be found. No one got in Carlos Moore's face to question him about the sanctions or the actions of his client.
The media should do its job and report how the lawsuit blew up in the faces of Carlos Moore and Erica Stewart. It has a duty to report that Belhaven University and its employee were exonerated. Anything less is shameful, unethical, and is indeed a hi-tech lynching.
Earlier posts
Court sanctions Carlos Moore & client in Belhaven case.
Belhaven: Stewart committed fraud upon court.
Did Carlos' client try to smear Belhaven & employee?
14 comments:
AWESOME reporting! Holding their feet to the fire! Go get 'em Kingfish!
Isn't Carlos a municipal judge in Clarksdale? How could this impact him presiding over cases at the municipal level?
Journalism is dead. Camille Paglia is right is her claim that it will take decades for journalism recover credibility if they started acting responsibly now. There are no signs of responsibility on the horizon.
And these local yokels are better than the national journalists.
Carlos Moore and his brand of slimy sensationalist "lawyers" understand that it's not whether you're right or wrong, it's how much press can you generate? And the media is only interested in attention-getting stories. Retractions and dismissals do not garner much attention, so they hardly see the light of day. Ultimately, jackassery garners attention and name-recognition, and before you know it the fools are in charge. Admit it or not, our president knows the same thing!
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Donner K gets more hits than JJ?!
Wow. Either Jackson has a real need for comic relief or there are a ton of deluded people in Jackson.
Fido, the lower number the better.
calos moore is not a attorney. he is political activist. dicky scruggs was not an attorney just a stinking political fixer. why the bar cannot get rid of carlos....? well thats good question. and by the way I'm an attorney in practice for 29 years.
4:47 - I think you're wrong. How could a LOWER number of daily hits be better than a HIGHER number of reads? And what the fig has this got to do with the article other than the blog owner wanted it included?
I just saw a story on WLBT's website about the court's ruling, but it was clear they do not fully understand what occurred. The problem with local media is they can only deal with simple narratives, such as the frivolous claims of some plaintiff's attorney, which are dutifully parroted at the top of the newscast or front page.
Those are not hits dummy, those are rankings. It even says "ranking" which you would have seen if you had bothered to read the whole comment. Oh wait, early in the morning, attacking readers, insulting everyone, poor reading comprehension, it must be Shadowfax.
WAPT actually ran an on-air story ( saw it on website) and it actually made sense. They say they contacted Carlos but he told them "no comment"... odd, he's usually so chatty and sociable.
WAPT actually ran an on-air story ...
After the fact. Don't let it be said that JJ doesn't have influence.
KF, check out the last paragraph of the most recent CL article re Moore's new clients for some irony.
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