DELAY DELAY PAULA

• Share

Paula Jones will have to wait until 1996, or perhaps the year 2000 -- whenever President Clinton leaves office -- before her sexual harassment lawsuit against him goes to trial, a federal judge ruled today. Jones sued Clinton in May for allegedly making unwanted overtures to her in a Little Rock Hotel in 1991, when he was Arkansas governor. U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright said that allowing the case to proceed now would "interfere with the conduct of the duties of the office" of president. Still, contrary to the efforts of Clinton attorneys, Wright wouldn't dismiss the case and permitted Jones' attorneys to gather sworn statements from witnesses. Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, filed the lawsuit two days before the three-year statute of limitations had run out, something the judge noted in deciding that there's no urgency in proceeding with the case.