In deposition halt, attorney faces penalty

Assistant AG aiding HSU’s chief in suit by ex-worker

A federal judge has ordered a government attorney defending Henderson State University President Glen Jones to pay attorney fees over a suspended deposition, taken in preparation for the trial of a former university employee’s lawsuit against Jones.

Attorneys for Jones and the Arkansas attorney general’s office agreed that those fees would total $1,500, according to a status report filed this week with the U.S. District Court’s Western District of Arkansas.

The case involves a lawsuit filed in August 2017 by Julia Correia, who was Henderson’s coordinator of the Center for Language Proficiency and director of the English as a Second Language Graduate Academy until Jones terminated her position in 2014. Correia also taught classes.

Chief U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III, presiding in the court’s Hot Springs division, ruled Friday that Assistant Arkansas Attorney General Ka Tina Hodge should pay the legal expenses incurred by Correia’s attorneys for that deposition, a pretrial process during which a person answers attorneys’ questions under oath.

During that questioning in May, Correia’s counsel asked Jones if he had reviewed documents to prepare for the deposition. “Mr. Jones’s counsel repeatedly objected to Ms. Correia’s [attorney’s] question, preventing Mr. Jones from answering it. At that time, the deposition ended,” Holmes wrote.

Hodge’s objections did not seem “substantially justified,” the judge concluded in ordering the sanction. Holmes also ordered Jones to complete the deposition. The subsequent status report filed Monday said attorneys have agreed on “potential settings” for the session.

Asked about the sanction, Jessica Ray, a spokesman for Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office, said, “There has not been a conclusion reached about the specifics of the payment.”

An investigative report issued in December 2014 by the Arkansas Legislative Audit found multiple violations at the Center for Language Proficiency, including excessive and inappropriate spending on items such as olive oil, steam irons, electronics, umbrellas and snack foods.

Correia’s lawsuit, filed by attorneys Luther Sutter and Joseph Churchwell, accuses Jones of publicizing information leading the public to believe she has misused state money. “However, this was not true, and Plaintiff has been stigmatized in the community as a result of several newspaper articles and television reports,” her complaint says.

In addition to damages, Correia seeks a name-clearing hearing and reinstatement.

Sutter said Correia was never charged with a crime.

Correia contends that she was denied due process and that Jones discriminated against her “on account of her gender by terminating her and paying her less.”

Correia says no one ever advised her she was under an earlier investigative audit requested by Jones and handled on a contractual basis by two employees of Arkansas State University, where Jones formerly worked.

“All of this was done without HSU asking plaintiff a single question,” Correia’s complaint says.

The Legislative Audit was separate from the contracted audit.

Jones has asked the court to rule in his favor on the lawsuit. Jones contends Correia cannot make a case for gender discrimination and says that, if she was entitled to any due process, she got it. He says she failed “to sufficiently request a name clearing hearing.”

In May, Jones hired defense attorneys Emily Runyon and John Moore to represent him personally, while Hodge continues to represent Jones in his official capacity at Henderson.

“The university is not paying the costs incurred by” Runyon and Moore, HSU spokesman Tina Hall said in an email.

Hall said the university has received requests from the attorney general’s office for reimbursement for a court report and video tape related to the deposition.

“We are in contact with the attorney general’s office about the requests. Payment has not been processed at this time,” Hall added.

When that office represents a state agency — in this case, Henderson — the office “asks for reimbursements for filing fees, lab tests, court reporting and expert witness fees. All other expenses are absorbed by the attorney general’s office,” Ray said.

A jury trial on the lawsuit is to begin Oct. 1.