Okla. Judge Sues Accusers in Indecent Exposure Case
An Oklahoma judge who has been charged with indecent exposure in a criminal case has filed a civil defamation action against his accusers, one of whom reportedly is his ex-girlfriend.
Judge Jesse Harris, who sits in Tulsa County District Court, contends in a suit filed yesterday in the same court that he has been falsely accused, reports the Tulsa World.
Accused by two women of exposing himself to them in March in a Tulsa motel parking lot, Harris was charged by a special prosecutor in April with two counts of indecent exposure, the newspaper recounts. “One of the women, Kalisha Nolen, has been identified as Harris’ ex-girlfriend. The other woman, identified as Nolen’s friend, has been in the Tulsa Jail since April and has two unresolved felony DUI charges.”
The newspaper identified Nolen, with her permission, but withheld the friend’s name based on a policy of not identifying victims of claimed sex crimes.
In the suit, Harris contends that the women “conspired to make false claims of criminal conduct” against him and then “thereafter carried out the scheme,” slandering and libeling him in an intentional effort to destroy his legal and judicial career. It seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages.
