Judge accused of sexual harassment wins appeals court seat
An Ohio common pleas judge won an appellate court seat on Tuesday, the same day that a Columbus newspaper obtained details of sexual harassment allegations against him.
The Franklin County Judge, Tim Horton, was unopposed in his bid for a seat on the county court of appeals, the Columbus Dispatch reports. He denies the allegations. The complaint was filed by Elise Wyant, Horton’s former secretary who later became his bailiff.
Wyant had claimed she was forced to resign because court executive director Atiba Jones didn’t act on her complaints of sexual harassment by Horton, the Columbus Dispatch says. Jones resigned two days after Wyant’s resignation.
Wyant said Horton had initially hired her as his secretary after meeting her at a restaurant near the courthouse where she worked as hostess, the story says. She alleged that she and the judge often went out drinking together, and on one occasion she vomited in his car.
The Columbus Dispatch obtained Wyant’s “complaint packet” Tuesday as a result of its public records request. Wyant alleged that Horton commented about wanting to have sex with her and told of his sexual encounters, according to the newspaper account. Wyant also claimed Jones didn’t investigate Horton either because of a friendship with the judge or because of a prior consensual sexual relationship between Wyant and Jones.
Jones said he doesn’t recall any complaints about Horton from Wyant. Horton said in a statement that Wyant’s “allegation of sexual harassment by me is completely and utterly false.”
A response filed by Horton’s lawyer said Wyant’s resignation “appears to be nothing more than the writings of a jilted lover who now seeks to ruin the professional careers of her lover and Judge Horton.”
