On January 28, I published “Divided, We Fall,” a post about Pine Bluff High School Principal Michael Nellums’ reputation as a serial sexual abuser. The next day, one of my sources for the post decided to abandon his pseudonym and sue Michael Nellums, Superintendent Jeremy Owoh, and the Pine Bluff School District (PBSD) for “negligent supervision and retention, and the tort of outrage.” Read the complaint here.
from KATV
This is the third time (at least) that Nellums has gotten sued for sexual wrongdoing. However, this is the first time that the plaintiffs were children at the time of Nellums’ alleged misconduct. It’s a class action by multiple students who experienced similar (or worse) treatment under Michael Nellums’ authority. As the complaint states, “…there are far more than 23 students who have been sexually harassed by Nellums or security guards” at Pine Bluff High School. Indeed, “…the number of plaintiffs could be in the hundreds.”
Nearly a month after the lawsuit was filed, co-defendant Jeremy Owoh (who served as Johnny Key’s Assistant Commissioner of Educator Effectiveness and Licensure at the Arkansas Department of Education until Key appointed him Superintendent of PBSD) filed his first response to the complaint: A motion for “more definitive statement, other special relief, and expedited hearing.” Read this motion here. In this motion, Owoh says there’s no way he can answer the complaint without knowing the names of the other alleged victims of Michael Nellums.
Normally, this is a question a Defendant would ask during the phase of a lawsuit when the two sides exchange discovery. However, instead of following the normal schedule for a lawsuit, Owoh has requested a special, expedited hearing because “If Separate Defendants were forced to wait until discovery could be conducted in this case, Plaintiffs could wait some 30 plus days, or even longer to provide this information, depending on the how the Separate Defendants respond to the Complaint.”
In other words, Owoh waited until the 29th day after the lawsuit was filed to say he needed to skip the process of exchanging discovery — because that might take 30 days or more.
Maybe Jeremy Owoh wants to get this lawsuit wrapped up before the party in his honor at Governor Asa Hutchinson’s mansion on April 4.
Or maybe Jeremy Owoh wants to know the names of the other plaintiffs so that he and/or Nellums can retaliate against them, as Nellums demonstrably has done in the past.
Whatever his motivation, Owoh insists (both in his court filing and in a statement to THV11) that he never heard any allegations of Nellums’ sexual misconduct toward children prior to the class action complaint filed on January 29. In support of this assertion, Owoh points to the independent investigation of Michael Nellums performed by attorney Emily Runyon.
Jeremy Owoh, on behalf of PBSD, hired “investigator” Emily Runyon on January 16. She charged the district $4367 to interview witnesses regarding the Bradley v. Nellums lawsuit that had begun on January 7. However, when she submitted her final report to PBSD on February 18, Emily Runyon was careful to point out that she had deliberately decided not to include certain documents with her report, since she “did not want outside information to influence the conclusions about this particular incident.”
What sort of “outside information” did Ms. Runyon exclude from her report, exactly? One item is the deposition of former PBSD Superintendent Clarence “Michael” Robinson, Jr., recorded on January 24, 2019 — 25 days before Runyon presented her final report to PBSD. In this deposition, Dr. Robinson described the actions of certain PBSD school board members in reinstating Michael Nellums to his job at PBHS after the district settled a previous sexual harassment/discrimination case. Dr. Robinson said the board gave powers to Michael Nellums and Monica McMurray-King that would normally be the superintendent’s exclusive responsibility.
Under oath, Dr. Robinson also testified that he had heard about Nellums’ sexually predatory behavior toward PBSD students. PBSD’s attorney, Cody Kees, attended this deposition — five days prior to the filing date of the students’ class action. Thus, PBSD demonstrably did hear about allegations of Nellums’ sexual misconduct toward children prior to January 29, when the students’ lawsuit was filed.
According to Robinson’s deposition, “Teachers talked. Community people were talking. . . . And I never called [Nellums] in to ask him anything about it, and I never went to the board about it because it was not brought to me as an official grievance or complaint. And so, now, people are this way when you ask them something, they don’t want to talk, they are very afraid to talk, so they are not going to say anything, but they are saying enough for you to know that something perhaps may have gone on, or might have transpired, but you don’t really know.”
“…they are very afraid to talk, so they are not going to say anything, but they are saying enough for you to know that something perhaps may have gone on…”
Hm. Afraid to talk? Why would anybody be afraid to speak on behalf of children being sexually victimized?
Well, since I published my first story about Michael Nellums on January 28, both my source and I have gotten sued for defamation. These defamation lawsuits seem designed to silence people who are doing their best to tell the truth about items of public interest. Technically, Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP lawsuits) are illegal in Arkansas — so hopefully, they’ll be dismissed. However, it’s clear there are rich and powerful people protecting Michael Nellums now, just as there were when he got caught trying to frame a Little Rock School District school board member for bribery.
Good thing there’s another former student who has bravely agreed to become another “named plaintiff” in the class action against Nellums. As the plaintiffs’ attorney points out, she and Dr. Robinson bring the total to “10 people harassed and 16 witnesses.” What is the tipping point in a situation like this?
Pine Bluff School District is one of four Arkansas school districts currently under the direct control of Governor Asa Hutchinson’s unqualified Education Commissioner, Johnny Key. The students’ lawyer, Lucien Gillham, addresses Johnny Key directly in a brief filed on March 11, writing: “What Mr. Key needs to ask himself is he more interested in taking a litigation position to defend a serial predator, or finding the truth.”
Later in the brief, Mr. Gillham asks — even even more pointedly:
“Why hire [Nellums] after the fake-blackmail scheme? Why keep him after it was corroborated that he had sexually harassed 7 women by 12 different witnesses? Why keep him after he discharged or tried to discharge two women who dared to complain? Why was it that Superintendent Robinson felt like the real superintendent was Nellums? Why tell Bradley the district could not [afford] more scandals? Why keep [Nellums] when Judge [Earnest] Brown has told the district not to send more truancy cases, because he cannot even get his staff to keep attendance? Why keep [Nellums] when yet another allegation of harassment turned up? Why not do a real investigation of that allegation? Why fail to respond to Bradley’s discovery with complete honesty, noting the complaints [from] the parents? Why hire [Nellums] when [Nellums] had his personnel file at PCSSD cleared of negative materials – don’t they want to know who it is they are hiring?”
Personally, I believe Asa Hutchinson and Johnny Key know exactly who they have in Michael Nellums. As I’ve said before, both Hutchinson and Key wear blinders when it comes to criminal behavior in state-controlled school districts. These politicians are forcing school districts to “self destruct” so that they can advance their political agenda of substituting charter schools and private school vouchers for truly public education.
As always, it’s the children who suffer most.