Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
March 28 — Paula Jones’ attorneys today filed
papers in their case against President Clinton that
contain an unsigned letter alleging the president
sexually assaulted a woman in a hotel room 20
years ago.
The lawyers offer no other evidence. The woman has
denied the incident under oath while testifying in the
Jones
case, legal sources told ABCNEWS. The lawyers did not
include her denial in their papers, filed in court in
Little Rock,
Ark.
Clinton’s lawyer, Robert Bennett, today called the
accusation false, reckless, outrageous and a sign the
Jones
lawyers are becoming desperate. White House spokesman
Mike McCurry, traveling with the president in Africa,
said he
had not seen the letter and had no comment on it.
Jones is suing Clinton, accusing him of sexually
harassing
her in a hotel room when he was governor of Arkansas.
Clinton denies the allegations.
Lawyers: Letter Refutes Clinton
Jones’ attorneys, in their filing, said the letter
refutes Clinton’s
assertion in a legal deposition that he had not and would
not
sexually harass any woman.
The letter is dated Oct. 23,1992, and is from a man
named Phillip Yoakum to the woman, identified as a
registered nurse.
The letter, which goes into graphic detail of the
alleged
encounter, says it happened in a hotel room at a nursing
home
conference in Little Rock.
Yoakum Details Unavailable
The papers do not identify Yoakum, and further
information
on his whereabouts or background were not immediately
available.
The phone number listed for Phillip Yoakum at the
address on the letter answers with an automatic phone
company recording saying the number has been disconnected
or is no longer in service. There is no other listing for
a Phillip
Yoakum in Arkansas.
The letter says Yoakum faxed a document “detailing
the
facts of the rape as you had told them to me” to
Sheffield
Nelson, a long-time Republican opponent of Clinton who
lost
to him in the 1990 gubernatorial election.
The letter says Nelson was suspicious but met with
Yoakum. It doesn’t further identify their link.
Letter Unsigned, Tapes ‘Destroyed’
Yoakum’s letter, which he calls a ‘copy,’ has no
signature.
He claims in a fax to an attorney he names as Wendell
Holmes to have had a Xerox copy of the letter but to have
destroyed it along with tapes he had made of
conversations
with the woman, her husband and others involved. A
Texas-based attorney in Jones’ case is named T. Wesley
Holmes.
Jones’ attorneys, in the papers filed today, also
state that
Clinton’s staff, by producing letters from Kathleen
Willey that
called her truthfulness into question, showed that they
were
obstructing the Jones case by not producing similar
documents when Jones’ lawyers demanded them earlier.
Willey, in a much-watched interview on 60 Minutes,
claimed that Clinton had groped her and kissed her
inappropriately near the Oval Office.
--
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