- The alienation of affection lawsuit filed against N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore ended officially Wednesday with a voluntary dismissal.
- Scott Lassiter, a middle school principal and former Apex Town Council member, accused Moore of conducting an affair with Lassiter's wife that helped break up the couple's marriage.
- Moore and the wife, Jamie Liles Lassiter, both disputed Lassiter's claims. Media outlets reported Monday that the lawsuit "has been resolved."
An alienation of affection lawsuit against N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore officially ended Wednesday. The plaintiff in the case filed a voluntary dismissal in Wake County Superior Court.
“Plaintiff hereby gives notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice of his claims in this action. This matter has been resolved,” according to the document signed by Alicia Jurney, a lawyer representing plaintiff Scott Lassiter.
Media outlets reported as early as Monday that the case “has been resolved.”
Lassiter, an assistant principal at Connections Academy Middle School and member of the Wake County Soil and Water Conservation District Board of Supervisors, filed suit on June 19 against Moore, R-Cleveland. The complaint accused the speaker of helping to break up Lassiter’s marriage.
Lassiter, a Republican, claimed Moore conducted a secret affair with his wife that lasted for more than three years and resulted in the “destruction” of his marriage.
Moore denied the accusation, describing the lawsuit as “baseless” and saying he and his attorneys “will vigorously defend this action and pursue all available legal remedies.” Moore told reporters he had engaged in an on-again, off-again relationship with Jamie Liles Lassiter for three years. Moore said Liles Lassiter had told him that she and her husband were separated.
Lassiter claimed alienation of affection and alleged damages in excess of $25,000, which is the threshold to go to Superior Court. Lassiter sought total damages from Moore and an unnamed second man of at least $200,000.
Proving alienation of affection
In order to succeed in his lawsuit, Lassiter would have needed to prove the following, according to Montgomery Family Law:
- You and your spouse were in a valid marriage with genuine love and affection;
- The love and affection between you and your spouse were destroyed and alienated;
- The wrongful and malicious behavior of the third party was the cause of the destruction and alienation of your spouse’s love and affection;
- The wrongful and malicious behavior occurred prior to the separation of you and your spouse; and
- The alienation damaged you (i.e., led to the dissolution of your marriage, separation, depression, economic loss, etc).
North Carolina is one of only six states in the United States with alienation of affection laws.
Stacy Miller, Moore’s attorney, said he was confident his client would be “vindicated” and she “look[ed] forward to seeing Mr. Lassiter in the courtroom.”
Liles Lassiter said after the suit was filed that she had been separated from her husband for years and said he lied about the claims.
“Scott Lassiter has serious mental health and substance abuse issues, which I can only assume led him to file this outrageous and defamatory suit,” she told WRAL. “The claims are not only false but impossible as we’ve been separated with a signed separation document for years.”
Jamie Liles Lassiter is a public notary and the executive director of the North Carolina Conference of Clerks of Superior Court. She previously worked as a grants specialist for the Governor’s Crime Commission, research adviser to the office of the N.C. House speaker pro tem, and a deputy clerk of Superior Court for the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts.
She said her husband abused her and threatened her career.
“To be clear, I’m a strong professional woman, and the only person who has ever abused me or threatened my career was my soon to be ex-husband,” Jamie Liles Lassiter statement read. “Our marriage was a nightmare, and since I left him it has gotten worse. We are reaching the end of our divorce process, and this is how he’s lashing out.”
The lawsuit alleged that the Lassiters “lived continuously together as husband and wife” from the time they were married in 2013 until January 2023. They split as a result of “Moore’s adulterous extramarital relationship with Mrs. Lassiter.”
Additionally, the lawsuit alleged that Scott Lassiter confirmed the adulterous relationship on Dec. 21, 2022.
“Mrs. Lassiter went to dinner with Defendant Tim Moore at Sullivan’s Steakhouse in Raleigh, North Carolina,” the lawsuit says. “After dinner, Defendant Tim Moore drove Mrs. Lassiter, in the Lassiters’ car, to his residence in Raleigh, where they spent hours together and, upon information and belief, had sexual intercourse.”
Lassiter went on to say that his wife confessed the affair to him the next morning and said she feared losing her job if she ceased her relations with Moore.
Lassiter claimed he met with Moore at a Biscuitville restaurant to confront him about the affair, where he says Moore admitted to the affair and asked if there was anything he could do for him. Moore admitted to the meeting but did not say he had offered anything to Lassiter.
Later in the lawsuit, Lassiter claimed Moore hired a man to install a hidden camera on Lassiter’s property in an effort to blackmail him. Lassiter provided a photo of the man who allegedly installed the camera.
Moore is serving a record fifth term as N.C. House speaker.