A federal jury is slated to consider in August whether to award damages to former Alcohol and Tobacco Commissioner Murphy Painter in a defamation case against Kelli Suire.
Painter sued his former administrative assistant in 2011, alleging she cost him his job as head of the agency by claiming he stalked and sexually harassed her. After a four-day liability trial in October, a federal jury found that while Suire had not acted with malice in her statements to state investigators, she had acted maliciously in a state court pleading, where she alleged that Painter made “constant comments” of a “sexually explicit nature,” and that she was in “fear for her life.” The state of Louisiana ultimately settled that case for $100,000, according to documents filed in the federal case. U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick upheld the federal jury’s finding in a December ruling.
Painter and Suire had agreed to bifurcate the matter, trying the issues of liability and damages separately; the trial on damages is set for Aug. 12. —Penny Font
