Cornyn's Democrat Challenger Threatens to Sue the Senator

HOUSTON, Texas–Democrat candidate David Alameel threatens to sue the campaign of U.S. Senator John Corny for defamation and creates a public relations blunder that shines the light on the alleged sexual harassment of women in his dental practice. Senator Cornyn’s campaign spokesman Drew Brandewie responded that Alameel is falling back on an old Democrat strategy, “It’s clear that if David Alameel can’t win at the polls, he’ll just sue.”

Alameel hired Los Angeles lawyer Martin Singer to attack the Cornyn campaign according to an article in the Houston Chronicle by Kevin Diaz. Singer was once referred to as the “guard dog to the stars” by the New York Times after representing stars like Charlie Sheen, Quinton Tarantino and Sylvester Stallone.  He also represented Senate Majority Leader, Democrat Harry Reid from Nevada. Singer sent a letter to the Cornyn campaign demanding a retraction and accused the campaign of making “outrageous, false and defamatory” statements about the Alameel sexual harassment case.

Cornyn’s attorney responded and accused Alameel of attempting to “intimidate Texans from discussing his fitness for public office.”

In 2004, four women sued Alameel’s Jefferson Dental Clinics for discrimination. The trial lasted seven days and was eventually thrown out by a Dallas County jury. Later, a federal lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) resulted in a consent decree that required Alameel to publish a non-harassment policy and conduct training for all employees and managers in his dental clinics. Alameel admitted to no wrongdoing in this trial.

The original email sent out by Sen. Cornyn’s campaign (obtained by Breitbart Texas and attached below) points out many differences between Alameel and Cornyn. It references several articles published by news outlets across Texas:

David Alameel’s Company Was Sued by the EEOC for Firing Female Employees After They Complained About a Sexually Hostile Work Environment. “A chain of dental clinics owned by wealthy Dallas businessman David Alameel, the Democrats’ top choice in the U.S. Senate race, entered into a federal court agreement in 2008 to settle claims brought by four women who said they lost their jobs after complaining about a sexually hostile work environment.” (Kevin Diaz, “Clinics owned by Alameel, Democrats’ U.S. Senate hope, battled 5-year discrimination suit,” Houston Chronicle, May 8, 2014)

The Four Women Claimed They Were Subjected To Sexual Harassment By Jefferson Dental Clinics’ CFO Kadri Cumur. “In one instance, [Cumur] allegedly reached inside one woman’s blouse and touched her bra. Another woman testified that he unbuttoned her blouse. “(Kevin Diaz, “Clinics owned by Alameel, Democrats’ U.S. Senate hope, battled 5-year discrimination suit,” Houston Chronicle, May 8, 2014)

• LAWSUIT: “There were several times that he approached [her] while she was sitting, stood in front of her, and rocked back and forth, with his groin in her face.” (EEOC v. Jefferson Dental Clinics (5th Cir.), Brief As Appellee, Fifth Circuit, May 3, 2006)
• LAWSUIT: “When one of the women turned down his invitation to dinner, he allegedly called her a ‘whore.'” (Kevin Diaz, “Clinics owned by Alameel, Democrats’ U.S. Senate hope, battled 5-year discrimination suit,” Houston Chronicle, May 8, 2014)

In the email, the Cornyn campaign states, “in David Alameel Texans will find someone who as a businessman has a troubling history of hostility towards women and as a candidate has taken liberal positions far outside of the mainstream, aligning himself with Wendy Davis to secure the nomination. And no matter how many big checks David Alameel writes to his own campaign, this seat belongs to the people of Texas and this election will not be bought. “

Cornyn also stated in the email, “In other words, when given the choice between four women who claimed they were sexually harassed and their accused male harasser, David Alameel chose the latter.”

Alameel objected that Cornyn did not mention the ruling against the four women in the lawsuit in his email. The Cornyn campaign also maintains that it was under no legal obligation to mention the Dallas jury verdict in its email, any more than the letter from Alameel’s lawyer was obliged to mention the 2008 federal consent decree requiring Alameel’s clinics to publish a non-harassment policy and conduct training for its employees, according to the Chronicle article linked above.

The move by Alameel to hire this high-profile attorney and bring this type of an attack seems to have backfired. Prior to this action, the email was primarily seen by those on the Senate campaign’s e-blast list. Now, the story has new life and hundreds of thousands of people who might not have otherwise knows about Alameel’s alleged problems with women and sexual harassment might have gone unnoticed.

Earlier this week Alameel defeated Keesha Rogers, a black female candidate, in the Democrat primary runoff elections. The Texas Democratic Party appears to have discriminated against the black woman by leaving her off of the Party’s official candidate website.

Bob Price is a staff writer and a member of the original Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.