Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004 | 9:44 a.m.
U.S. Magistrate Peggy Leen told attorneys Monday in a federal civil rights case that she will issue a written order addressing allegations that attorneys for Courtesy Mitsubishi tampered with witnesses.
The lawsuit was filed in June 2003 by Gary T. Freeman against Courtesy Mitsubishi. According to the suit. Freeman was fired in April 2002 after "more than two years of being subjected to a daily barrage ... of racial slurs and race-based jokes."
The suit states that the reason Freeman was given for his firing on a separation report was, "Token -- too many coloreds in the building."
The tampering allegations are laid out in a motion filed in October by Freeman's attorney, John Tofano, and asks that Courtesy be held in contempt.
The motion states that Baron Harmon, Courtesy corporate counsel, had visited some of Freeman's former coworkers, who are among the witnesses in the case, and told them to change their statements. Those witnesses and Harmon testified before Leen Monday.
Harmon denied initiating contact with the witnesses. He said he believed they had come forward on their own and wanted to change statements they had previously made backing Freeman's claims.
Tofano alleged that Harmon pressured the men, told them to sign statements saying that they lied to Freeman and in the case of former Courtesy employee Henry Day III, told him to lie during a deposition.
Harmon, who has been an attorney for more than 20 years, denied all of the accusations.
"I just told them to tell the truth, (at their depositions)," Harmon said.
Day, who also testified Monday, related a different version of events in his meeting with Harmon.
"He told me to blow off the deposition," Day said. "He suggested that I put on paper that I was angry and motivated by money."
Day, who until recently lived in Hawaii, said that he was flown by Harmon from Oahu to Maui earlier this year for a meeting. Day said that while in Maui he was told by Harmon to purchase whatever he wanted and bill it to Harmon's hotel room. Day testified that he got a massage and charged it to Harmon. He also testified that Harmon gave him a $200 witness fee.
Harmon disputes the story, saying that he was unaware of any massage and that he gave Day about $200 to cover the expenses Day incurred during the trip including cab fares and incidentals.
Day admitted under cross examination from Courtesy attorney Ellen Winograd that his written statement to Harmon disavowing his earlier statement in support of Freeman's claims was faxed to Harmon before they met in Hawaii.
In a reply to Tofano's motion, Winograd alleges that Freeman was paying Day for written statements against Courtesy and that Day met with Harmon to come clean on what he was doing.
Day admitted Monday that Freeman had loaned him $500 and that he had made the statement to him that "at the end of this, friends don't forget friends."
Day said he didn't know if that meant that Freeman was offering to pay him something if he should win his case, but he added that he thought that side of the story should be told, and that's why he talked to Harmon.
Tofano's contempt motion asks that sanctions be placed on the defendant and that Leen rule in favor of Freeman in the underlying civil rights case that asks for more than $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
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