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Sexual assault victim says her own
lawyer threatened to help Councilman Harrison sue her if she ever told
anyone of the incident or violated confidentiality agreement
See: Harrison
paid $28,000 to settle sexual assault claim: Part I
The young woman who says she a victim of sexual assault by lawyer William W.
(Billy) Harrison Jr., a Virginia Beach City Councilman, told VNS her
hired lawyer,
threatened to help Harrison sue her if she ever told anyone about the
incident.
The victim, who said she was required to sign a confidentiality
agreement, said her lawyer Linda Laibstain "told me at
settlement, if I ever told anyone about this, Billy would sue me and she
would help him." [emphasis added]
In fact, in the first paragraph
of page 2 of the letter to William Rachels, Harrison's lawyer, Laibstain
states that one of the "most important aspects of this settlement
is the confidentiality provision." "I'll be honest with
you, I was mad, but I was also scared," the victim said. She
said she will no longer be intimidated by the legal system or any of its
players.
She went to about a dozen lawyers trying to get
someone who would represent her interests against Harrison before she
found Laibstain of Hofheimer, Nusbaum, P.C.. None of the others would
take the case, citing that Harrison was a powerful young lawyer in a powerfully
well-connected law firm.
The victim said every attorney she told her
story to, including Laibstain, who agreed only to limited representation, discouraged her from going to the police,
she assumes to keep from embarrassing Harrison and his law firm.
"She (Linda) just told me, 'well, you're just wasting your time
period, because of who his father is and who he is. There's not going to be
anyone to take your case'. She said there is no sense in even
trying to go to the police. They told me at work, if I went to the
police, I would be the one who'd be in trouble because no one would
believe me...because of who his father was and who he was."
(Harrison's father was president of one of the largest banks in the
state at the time).
She added, "To me, I got ripped. The shaft all the way around
(from the legal system in addition to her encounter with
Harrison)."
The victim said she always thought of the incident more as a crime than
a civil matter, but finally reached the point of accepting any legal
help.
The victim said that when "Linda saw the ad I had written on the front
of a folder I had, she told me, 'Let me call Billy and see what I can
work out.'" The ad read: "I need a lawyer -
someone not afraid to fight William Harrison Jr. of Willcox &
Savage, PC for sexual assault and harassment, also not afraid to fight a
large hotel chain."
"I think," the victim said, "that Linda just wanted to
stop me from going anywhere else or running that ad."
She had to leave the state shortly after the incident and is now
working as a aide at a minimal wage with retarded and handicapped children
for a school system. After the incident, Harrison went on to a
local political future and has become a major powerbroker in city
politics after serving two (2) terms. He is not seeking reelection
because his firm instituted a policy barring its lawyers from serving
elective offices.
In the letter Laibstain wrote Rachels proposing
settlement terms she said, "Since obtaining unemployment
compensation is important to (name withheld) until she obtains suitable
employment, you agreed to assist the hotel's management to ensure that
the proper papers are filed. I suggest that it read 'she
was laid off due to an insufficient amount of work,' which is what she
has been told by management." [emphasis added].
The victim said in an interview this week, "I was laid off
because I wouldn't have sex with the owner and slugged him. It had
nothing to do with the volume of work." [emphasis added]
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Do you want to help?
Any member of the
legal community who believes the victim in this case still has
un-represented issues involving this case who would like to help
can contact her, by calling VNS @ 757-340-4686. |
She said that after the story became public last week she got her
file out and re-read it. "I guess I signed that letter (from
Laibstain to Rachels), but if I'd known what the EEOC (Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission) is ... I would have went [sic] to
them. Like I told her (Laibstain), I really didn't want the money,
I just wanted him (Harrison) to pay for the crime that he done
[sic]. And no one mentioned the EEOC or whatever it is that I could have
went to [sic]."
Laibstain would not discuss the case with VNS. Attempts to
reach her by email to determine if she had experience in handing
sexual harassment/assault cases were unsuccessful. On her firm's
web page, however, her practice areas only list brain injury and
medical malpractice; commercial litigation; litigation; personal injury;
and trust and estates litigation.
The victim said that despite her emotional trauma and scars, Laibstain did not
recommend counseling or seek funds for such counseling. "I
should have definitely had counseling. There have been many times
when we (school system employees) have to go to these sexual harassment classes, it has been a big
problem for me. There's been so many times, I've wanted to come
down there and slap the sh-t out of him, beat the sh-t out of him or
shoot him."
The victim, unsophisticated in the ways of the law, said she still
feels that she was abused by the system through the entire process.
"It was in those
classes that I learned what had really happened to me and what my rights
were. At one point, after getting out of one of the classes, I
just wanted to get in the car and come down there (to Virginia Beach)
and pop him (Harrison). I still get those feelings
occasionally," the victim said last week.
Below are copies of letters, the only
documents VNS could obtain, both executed before the young woman signed
the confidentiality agreement. The first to Laibstain, the victim said,
was written by Laibstain and presented for her signature by Laibstain
hiring herself as the woman's lawyer. The second was
written by Laibstain to Rachels who was representing Harrison's
interests. It details the amount and terms of payment. It
also references the confidentiality agreement the woman was to
sign. Harrison refused to discuss the case with VNS.
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