'Resolved:' Plaintiff drops alienation of affection lawsuit against NC House Speaker Tim Moore
North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore no longer faces legal allegations that he destroyed another man’s marriage or traded sex for political favors.
Scott Lassiter, a former Apex town councilman, filed a lawsuit in June against Moore, R-Cleveland, alleging that he had a relationship with Lassiter’s wife, Jamie Liles Lassiter. Moore denied wrongdoing in the case, claiming Jamie Lassiter told him she was separated from her husband.
North Carolina is one of the few states that allows jilted spouses to sue someone for interfering in their marriage. The cases are rare and hinge on the spouse’s ability to prove that a third party is responsible for the demise of the marriage.
Jamie Lassiter rejected Scott Lassiter’s claim that Moore ruined their marriage, calling the marriage a “nightmare.” She referred to the lawsuit as “outrageous and defamatory.“
On Monday morning, Alicia Jurney, an attorney for Scott Lassiter, told WRAL that her client is no longer pursuing the case.
“This matter has been resolved,” Jurney said in an email. An attorney for Moore, W. Stacy Miller, II, also confirmed that the matter was resolved. Details of the resolution were not made public.
On Wednesday, two days after this article was initially published, Jurney filed a notice in Wake County Superior Court to voluntarily dismiss the case without prejudice.
Because Scott Lassiter is dismissing the case without prejudice, he maintains the right to refile it at any point within the next year, said Kieran Shanahan, an attorney who has worked on alienation-of-affection lawsuits and isn’t involved in the case.
Resolution agreements can include conditions that each side must meet over time for a deal to be finalized, Shanahan said. This can be a sign that the parties don’t trust each other.
“Sometimes when parties settle a case, there’s still not a lot of trust,” Shanahan said.
“My guess is that there's probably certain behaviors that the parties have agreed they would either engage in or not engage in for the period of a year,” he said. “And, if that condition were violated, then the plaintiff would have the right to restart the lawsuit.”
Most alienation-of-affection cases are resolved out of court, said Lindsay Willis, an attorney who practices family law at Rosen Law Firm and is not involved with the case.
“The cases are really hard to prove, the discovery phase is lengthy,” Willis said.
Moore’s case stands out, she said, because Scott Lassiter is resolving the lawsuit before the House Speaker had a chance to file counterclaims against him.
“At this point, it would not surprise me if no details come out,” Willis said. "Confidentiality agreements prevent parties from talking to the media (and) talking to other people about settlement and the case itself.”
Central to Scott Lassiter’s case is when the marriage started to crumble. Parties in the case offered differing narratives on when, and for how long, the Lassiters had been separated and whether subsequent efforts to save the marriage were successful.
Moore, who had been divorced for years when he and Jamie Lassiter began dating, told reporters that the two struck up a casual relationship in 2019. Moore said it was “sporadic at best,” and that Jamie Lassiter “always made it very clear to me that she was separated.”
“I can’t give you an estimate of how many times we were together or anything like that, and haven’t really sat down and thought through all the dates,” Moore told reporters shortly after the lawsuit was filed.
Scott Lassiter said in his lawsuit that he was separated from Jamie Lassiter in January and that they had been living happily until December, when he learned of her relationship with Moore. However, an apology letter and separation note Scott Lassiter wrote for his wife raised questions about the state of their marriage while Jamie Lassiter went out with Moore.
Scott Lassiter’s lawsuit also contained explosive allegations that Moore not only lured Jamie Lassiter out of a happy marriage— but that he also engaged in group sex with people who sought political favors. Jamie Lassiter works as Executive Director for the NC Conference of Clerks, a government-funded entity. Her salary increased 50% during her affair with Moore.
J. Yancey Washington, who sat on a committee that reviewed Jamie Lassiter’s salary, told WRAL last week that Moore had nothing to do with her raises. Moore also forcefully denied that he abused his position in elected office.
On Monday, Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman told WRAL that her office isn’t pursuing an investigation into Scott Lassiter’s allegations against Moore.
“At this time, based on a review of the complaint filed in the civil action, there are not allegations that would give rise to a criminal investigation or prosecution,” Freeman said in an email.
Moore, who lives in Kings Mountain, has served as speaker since 2015 and in that role has significant influence over state government. Under the leadership of Moore and Senate Leader Phil Berger, the GOP-led General Assembly has reduced corporate taxes, restricted abortion and ushered-in a number of policies that have garnered praise from conservatives in-and-out of North Carolina.
Moore may someday run higher office, political insiders believe.. Scott Lassiter’s lawsuit, had it lingered and continued to receive media attention, could have hindered Moore’s political career.
“Every day this case remained on the minds of North Carolina's journalists, and therefore the public in North Carolina, was another bad day for Tim Moore,” Chris Cooper, an expert on state politics who teaches at Western Carolina University.
“We'll never know the specifics of why the case was settled or even what the details of the settlement stipulated, but we know that it will put a pause on the story,” he said. “Regardless of the details of the settlement, that's a win for Tim Moore."
