City agrees to pay jail captain undisclosed sum to end lawsuit
The amount that Washington officials agreed to pay to end a county jail supervisor’s lawsuit against the city remains a secret.
A judgment against the city late in August resolved the federal lawsuit that Capt. Wendy J. Harris filed more than a year ago, also naming former city police Officer Joseph Moore. Police Lt. Robert Lemons Jr., who was Moore’s supervisor at the time, was later added as a defendant.
Harris’ case centered on allegations that then-city police Officer Joseph Moore had arrested her in violation of her constitutional rights to due process May 27, 2018. Moore had allegedly decided to arrest Harris because she refused to commit a man who had a head injury to the jail without clearance from a hospital.
Moore had arrested the man on suspicion of driving under the influence in a case that was later dismissed.
Court records show that Harris accepted an offer of judgment from the city, which was represented by lawyers from Travelers Insurance.
Harris’ lawyers asked the court for permission to file their motion for the judgment under seal, and to redact the amount from the judgment order.
City solicitor Jack Cambest said the judgment was sealed because of the other defendants in the case.
“I don’t think that they wanted the amount that they were seeking from the city to have any effect on the other defendants,” Cambest said.
He said the amount was covered by the city’s insurer, aside from any deductibles.
Harris’ attorneys, Alicia Nocera of Thomas E. Crenney & Associates in Sewickley and James Tallman of Elliott & Davis in Pittsburgh, didn’t return a message left with their firm Thursday afternoon.
The Observer-Reporter requested additional records related to the city’s agreement with Harris under the state Right to Know Law last week. After consulting with the insurance lawyers who’d defended the city, Cambest said the city wouldn’t release the amount of the judgment, citing the judicial seal.
A one-sentence order signed by U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV said only that he was sealing the judgment for “good cause shown.”
A media law attorney questioned the basis for withholding the amount of the settlement. There must be a reason shown for having court records sealed, and a judge’s order must identify what that rationale is.
“We don’t know what the ‘good cause’ is because they haven’t explained it,” said Melissa Melewsky, of the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association.
Melewsky added that a “complete closure” of this type of record is unusual, “especially because there is a public agency involved, and a payment of public funds.”
By the time Harris’ lawsuit was filed, Moore had already resigned in the wake of an internal investigation into events at the jail that night.
Upon entering the judgment against the city, Stickman also dismissed the case against Moore and Lemons.
Harris’ lawsuit claimed that Harris refused to admit the man Moore had arrested, and told Moore he would have to take the person with him when he left the facility. In turn, Moore had allegedly handcuffed her for 20 minutes and told her she was under arrest when she wouldn’t let him leave on his own.
Moore countersued, asserting it was Harris who had falsely imprisoned him when she wouldn’t let him out to join a fellow city officer who urgently needed help with a call.
Court records do show that Harris was awarded $24,700 in attorney’s fees and another $2,900 in other costs in the case. Cambest said insurance would likely also cover those obligations.
This article has been updated to correct the name of the law firm where James Tallman practices law.