Jones Case

WASHINGTON -- Ending one of America's most famous and damaging lawsuits, President Clinton agreed yesterday to pay Paula Corbin Jones $850,000 to withdraw her sexual misconduct case. The president made no apology and admitted nothing.By settling the case that had led to the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal, Clinton put a stop to a legal challenge that threatened to run on for months and might have gone to trial in a flood of more negative publicity.Jones stands to receive some money -- after her lawyers take an undetermined share -- from a lawsuit that had been dismissed and whose long-term prospects were doubtful, even if it had been revived on appeal and gone to trial.

WASHINGTON -- In a stinging and surprising rebuff of President Clinton, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously yesterday that he has no constitutional right to block Paula Corbin Jones' sexual misconduct lawsuit against him until after he leaves office.Rejecting every argument the president made to keep Jones' case on hold for 3 1/2 more years, the court said such a delay would take "no account [of Jones'] interest in bringing the case to trial."The justices acknowledged the "high respect that is owed to the office of the chief executive."

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's lawyers, accusing Paula Corbin Jones and her backers of trying to frustrate his presidency, force him out of office and deny him re-election, asked a federal judge yesterday to set aside for years her sexual harassment lawsuit.In a hefty document that weaves legal arguments with political resentments, the president's private attorneys said the case should be dismissed now, with Ms. Jones free to start it over after he leaves office. For the first time, the lawyers asked that legal claims by Ms. Jones against an Arkansas state trooper, based on the same alleged sexual incident, also be held off until Mr. Clinton is no longer president.

WASHINGTON -- You might have thought the news media had gone about as far over the ledge as they could with "disclosures" in the sex-and-lies allegations against President Clinton. You might have thought so, but you would have been wrong.Now comes word, culled from more legal documents filed in court by the lawyers of Paula Corbin Jones, of an allegation that Mr. Clinton, while attorney general of Arkansas, may have committed a foul deed against another woman, variously described by news reports as an "assault," a "sexual incident" or even a "rape."

A state law passed in June makes it a crime for registered sex offenders to set foot on school grounds, as Melvin L. Jones Jr. did last year when he visited the 11-year-old he is charged with killing. Had the law been in place a year ago, the principal of Collington Square School - who banned Jones from the campus and called the boy's mother when he learned of the man's history as a sex offender - would have been compelled to notify the police. If authorities had known of Jones' contact with Irvin J. Harris, which included helping him with his classwork and accompanying him to the cafeteria, Jones could have been sent back to prison for violation of his probation.

After 5 1/2 days of deliberations, a federal court jury announced yesterday it had failed to reach a verdict on charges that former state Delegate Lester V. Jones failed to pay about $130,000 in federal income taxes in 1983 and 1984.Federal prosecutors Joseph L. Evans and Ira L. Oring said the government will retry the case.The six-man and six-woman jury notified federal Judge Marvin J. Garbis that they were unable to agree on a unanimous verdict about 2 p.m. yesterday. Mr. Jones was charged with two counts of tax evasion for 1983 and 1984 and two counts of false reporting on amended returns he filed to correct errors on his original returns.

WASHINGTON -- Law professor Anita Faye Hill, whose accusations against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas put the sexual harassment issue at the national forefront, said yesterday that she saw both similarities and differences between her case and that of Paula Corbin Jones, who has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that President Clinton committed the same offense.Because both cases involve allegations against highly visible and powerful figures, "there will be some comparisons," Ms. Hill said in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation."

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton, voicing worry over a history-making clash between two branches of government, asked the Supreme Court yesterday to grant him immunity from private lawsuits until he leaves office.Acting through his private lawyers, Clinton appealed a lower-court ruling that said he was not entitled to delay a sexual-misconduct suit by former Arkansas state employee Paula Corbin Jones.Clinton said the case raises an issue of "extraordinary national importance": Can a court require a president, while in office, to defend against a private lawsuit?

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's private lawyer rushed last night to head off an angry wave of criticism from women's groups by vowing not to attack Paula Corbin Jones' sexual past in disputing her sexual misconduct lawsuit against the president."

WASHINGTON -- The sudden demise of Paula Corbin Jones' sexual misconduct suit has dramatically shifted the terrain on Capitol Hill, making Republican talk of impeachment all the more politically toxic.Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr made it clear yesterday he will proceed vigorously with his investigation of criminal allegations against the president, despite the fact that those allegations arise from a civil lawsuit that, for the moment, no longer exists.And Republicans in the House and Senate gamely insist the Jones ruling will have no impact on their decision on whether to proceed with an inquiry of impeachment.