One of the key witnesses featured in the investigative report that lead to Robert Bentley’s resignation will not be able to move forward with a lawsuit against the disgraced former governor.
On Thursday, Circuit Judge Truman M. Hobbs dismissed a lawsuit filed by Ray Lewis, Bentley’s ex-bodyman. The suit asserted that Lewis was wrongfully terminated when he was forced to retire, though it was ruled that Bentley was acting within his official scope of authority by asking Lewis to do so.
The legal filing also included Rebekah Mason and her company RCM Communications as a defendant. Judge Hobbs said that one claim against her, which alleged “intentional interference with business or contract relations,” may proceed with some conditions.
Hobbs says that the court may proceed gathering evidence in the case, but could not compel Mason to sit for a deposition since she may face criminal charges. She is also allowed to petition the court if she believes that requests for evidence in the case could damage her defense in another case.
Lewis’s lawsuit, which released just before Thanksgiving last year, provided one of the first glimpses into the nature of the alleged affair between Bentley and Rebekah Mason. It claimed that the former governor’s relationship with his top aide was physical in nature, and that Bentley asked Lewis to break off the relationship on his behalf. Additionally, Lewis’s suit was the first source to reveal that ex-First Lady Dianne Bentley discovered her husband’s extramarital relationship after catching “cloud”-linked text messages on her iPad.
At the time, Bentley’s lawyer, John Neiman, called Lewis’s lawsuit “an outrageous abuse of the system.”
“The bulk of his complaint is full of factual allegations the Governor denies, and those allegations ultimately (will) be shown to be irresponsible and false,” Neiman said.
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