Paul Howard, Fulton County district attorney. (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

A former longtime aide to Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard claims the district attorney used the promise of promotions, raises and assistance with her son's legal problems in exchange for sexual favors. 

In a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, former employee Cathy Carter claims the DA relentlessly pursued her, combining promises of better-paying positions and legal help for her son—who has a history of arrests and convictions—with the threat of disciplinary action in order to secure sexual favors from her.

Carter's suit acknowledges that she succumbed to Howard's advances "out of fear that her refusal would result in retaliation or termination."

Carter's suit alleges that Howard arranged for a former assistant district attorney in private practice to represent her son in exchange for sexual favors. Carter said she was never billed for those legal services. Her suit also alleges that Howard secured her son's release from Clayton County Jail after placing a call to Sheriff Victor Hill.

The suit alleges that, in 2019, when Carter finally told Howard she would no longer have sex with him, she was fired because of a pretext—a misdemeanor arrest based on what she claimed was a false allegation by a person who has been "in and out of jail."

The suit also contends that Carter contemporaneously confided instances where Howard allegedly harassed her to a close friend who also worked for Howard, another Fulton County employee, and her hair stylist. The suit also referenced a call that Carter recorded in which a man who at one point refers to himself as "Mr. Howard." On that recording, which The Daily Report has reviewed, the male voice repeatedly uses a crude term to solicit sex from Carter, asking, at one point, "If I call you tomorrow, can I come over and get some?"

The lawsuit said Carter left Howard's employ from 2011-2013 but returned to work for him after she ran out of money and couldn't find a job.

On Tuesday, Howard attorney Anita Wallace Thomas, a partner at the Atlanta offices of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, said Carter was terminated on June 7, 2019, when she was arrested by the Clayton County sheriff's office for assault while carrying a handgun.

"Ms. Carter previously filed a complaint with the Fulton County Office of Diversity and Civil Rights Compliance, which was denied," Thomas said in a statement provided by Howard's public information officer. "We have not reviewed the lawsuit filed by Ms. Carter; but expect that it too will be dismissed."

Thomas said any additional comment would be inappropriate. "However," she added, "the timing of this lawsuit, a mere 43 days before the election, is not lost upon Mr. Howard."

Howard is seeking his seventh term as Fulton County DA.

Mario Williams (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

Carter lawyer Mario Williams of Williams Oinonen said he filed suit after Fulton County's Office of Diversity and Civil Rights Compliance refused to consider Carter's complaint because it was not timely filed.

Williams said Tuesday that the county diversity office will only consider complaints filed within 30 days of an alleged instance of harassment.

"It's a story that needs to be told. It's not just about Ms. Carter," Williams said. "Based on what I have heard from other women, it's about an atmosphere that is toxic and needs to come to an end."

Carter is the second employee to accuse Howard of harassment. Former staffer Tisa Grimes has filed a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint against Howard with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and with the Fulton County diversity office.

Grimes also has filed a complaint against the diversity office with the county ethics board, claiming it refused to investigate her complaint that Howard demoted her after she repeatedly rejected his "obscene, unprofessional, and inappropriate sexual advances." Williams also represents Grimes.

The harassment complaints are not Howard's only problems as he campaigns for reelection. On April 10, the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission filed a formal complaint against Howard alleging multiple violations of the state's campaign finance disclosure laws.

The allegations center on Howard's positions as the paid CEO of two nonprofits, People Partnering for Progress and The Academy for Promise.

Public officials and candidates for public office are required to disclose their personal financial holdings annually. But the complaint alleges Howard failed to report that he was the CEO of both nonprofits or that he was paid a total of $140,000 between 2015 and 2019 by People Partnering for Progress, according to federal tax returns attached to the complaint.

A spokesman has twice told The Daily Report that Howard is assembling a legal team that "will respond appropriately" to the ethics complaint.