There will be no media blackout of the controversial PAULA DEEN sex harrass lawsuit, a Savannah, Georgia judge decreed.
As the ENQUIRER reporter previously ex-Deen employee Lisa T. Jackson sued Paula Deen, Paula’s brother Bubba Hiers and several of her corporate holdings including the Savannah restaurant The Lady & Sons in Chatham County Superior Court.
According to the former GM of Uncle Bubba’s (co-owned by Deen and Hiers) Jackson alleges in her lawsuit that Bubba Hiers created a hostile work environment, subjecting employees to sexual harassment, physical intimidation and racial slurs.
The lawsuit says Hiers watched pornography on his computer while at the restaurant, drank on the job, made sexually explicit comments to Jackson and kissed and spat at her.
Jackson charged that Paula Deen condoned this atmosphere of sexual harassment and racism and made racially offensive remarks herself.
Deen filed an emergency motion seeking a gag order and a media blackout on the now-very-public trial.
Deen charged that Jackson and her attorney S. Wesley Woolf, "fully intend to cause defendants economic and personal ruin and to prospectively influence the jury pool" by talking to the press before trial. Deen claims the litigants were engaged in "media warfare" to damage her reputation and business after she refused a settlement offer from Jackson's attorney.
"Plaintiff's complaint contains highly inflammatory allegations of sexism, racism, and employee mistreatment," the motion states. "For a public figure such as Mrs. Deen, even if Ms. Jackson's allegations are proven untrue, the harm resulting from the continuing mass dissemination of the allegations may never be undone."
BUT Chatham County Superior Court Judge Louisa Abbot rejected Deen's request for a gag order –as "concerns about potentially adverse pretrial publicity and the potential effect of damage to their reputations do not outweigh any of the constitutional principles invoked by this motion, including freedom of press and speech."
DEVELOPING…….
