Judge tosses Laney Harris’ lawsuit over 2017 censure

TEXARKANA, Ark. — A U.S. District Judge in Texarkana has dismissed Texarkana, Arkansas, Ward 2 Director Laney Harris’ federal suit against a former mayor and fellow board members who censured him in 2017.

U.S. District Judge Susan Hickey adopted a recommendation Oct. 17 made by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Bryant in September to grant a defense motion to dismiss the case. Hickey’s order, like Bryant’s report, evaluates each of the claims Harris appears to put forth in a 71-page amended complaint both jurists describe in filings as “hard to understand.” Harris filed the complaint and all other documents in the case on his own behalf without the benefit of a lawyer.

Harris filed suit in the Texarkana Division of the Western District of Arkansas in June 2018, about a year after fellow directors and then-Mayor Ruth Penney Bell signed a letter censuring Harris for allowing himself to be the subject of a harassment complaint, for conducting an unauthorized walk-through of a city building and for having an altercation with a citizen at a local community festival.

Harris was removed from the city’s Advertising and Promotion Commission at the same time he was censured.

Harris’ federal complaint alleges a number of federal and state law violations and asks the court to declare his censure “null and void” and order a public apology from the defendants.

In addition to Bryant’s legal analysis of the case, Hickey also considered an objection Harris filed to Bryant’s report and recommendations.

“The plaintiff (Harris) has not failed to establish and alleged orchestrated champagne of harassment was so severe or pervasive as to alter a terms to be a public service base on racial animus and he was denied due process and equal protection of the law (sic),” states a response Harris filed Oct. 11 to Bryant’s recommendation to dismiss.

Hickey found Harris’ supplemental filing unpersuasive and dismissed Harris’ federal claims that the defendants violated his First Amendment rights, his right to due process, his right to equal protection under the law and his claim of defamation in such a way that Harris cannot refile them.

Hickey dismissed state law claims raised by Harris in such a way that they could be refiled in an Arkansas state court. Because they found no viable claims of federal law violation, Bryant and Hickey declined to analyze Harris’ state law claims of outrage, libel and slander, civil conspiracy, breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Bryant dismissed those claims in a way that leaves the door open for Harris to file a civil lawsuit in state court if he wants to pursue them.

All of the claims Harris alleged in a lawsuit he filed in 2018 in Miller County circuit court against two 2017 Rail Fest volunteers were dismissed by a circuit judge earlier this year. A verbal altercation with one of the volunteers is among the three reasons given for Harris’ censure in 2017.