Carl R. Greene was accused of sexual harassment in the past year and is using threats of legal action to try and keep a victim from testifying in a current defamation case. Greene’s sexual harassment case was settled and since then he has been in a character defamation lawsuit with the Philadelphia Housing Authority in Pennsylvania.
A U.S. District Judge Ronald Buckwalter determined that the accusations of sexual harassment were allowable in the defamation case. The judge’s declaration allows the testimony of one of the women Greene was accused of sexually harassing, Carolyn Griffith. Greene was fired from being the PHA's executive director after 13 years due to the sexual harassment case that ensued.
Greene was also fired for arranging secret and huge payments to three different women whom he was accused of sexually harassing. One of those women was, of course, Carolyn Griffith, who was working as the Manager of Finance for the Philadelphia's Housing Authority. Many have wondered if she helped Greene cover up any company money, in order to make those secret payments possible.
The sexual harassment case Greene was involved in settled out of court for another $1.1 million, paid by the PHA and to be split between the women evenly. Greene's attorney, Clifford Haines, tried to keep Griffith's testimony from being covered by the public press but met opposition from the judge himself. Judge Buckwalter would not allow a secret testimony, making her coming testimony totally public and fully admissible.
Haines has been doing his best to keep this defamation case from reaching the public news, he wants only court witnesses to know what is being said outside of written and filed documents. Even Haines himself is being tight-lipped about the court proceedings. When Haines was asked about the Judge's ruling to allow Griffith's testimony, he refused comment and said he wouldn't discuss anything about the judge's ruling. The PHA defending lawyers in the defamation case has also refused to comment on the defamation suit.
Greene has even gone as far as to make threats take legal actions against Griffith if she testifies during the defamation case, but the Judge's order has made that threat nonexistent. None-the-less, Griffith didn't show up at her scheduled deposition time. Her lawyer advised her to testify, but Greene's threats seem to have worked to his advantage, at least for the time being.
Haines, Greene's attorney, has claimed that the PHA only wants to use her testimony to vilify and incriminate his client with unfairly biased information. Skewing the case that he’s building against the PHA. Judge Buckwalter denied the claim and is allowing her testimony, if she decides to give it.
Greene is currently living in Decatur, GA. and the old board of directors for the PHA has dissolved. The U.S. government now controls the company and all they do. Since the government does control the company now, if Greene were to win the defamation case, some are wondering where the government will come up with awarded monies, from private or public pockets.
Source: philly.com