Two more women come forward accusing Judge Parrish of sexual misconduct, which he calls ‘false’

Two more women in addition to Susan Rowley have come forward to Lubbock Report with claims of sexual misconduct against County Judge Curtis Parrish.

Parrish told Lubbock Report, “These allegations are preposterous and I will not comment on these false allegations. This is the first I’m hearing of any of these false allegations.”

The two women – who talked under the condition we do not use their names – have known Parrish for years. One worked for him in his county office before she said she was fired by him four years ago. The other has had business connections with him.

Rowley spoke on the record to Lubbock Report last week.

All three women’s accounts described a similar pattern. They said he:

• Talked about not having sex with his wife.
• Gave hugs that were too close and went on too long.
• Made efforts to get them alone.
• Made unwelcome sexual touching.

The former employee reported Parrish to the county Human Resources department – about her firing, not claims of sexual harassment – but said nothing came of it.

Lubbock Report reached out to the county’s HR Department to ask about the former employee’s story and was told to contact the county’s legal Civil Division.

Rowley, justice of the peace in Precinct 3, accused Parrish of non-consensual sexual contact in a video released by the Lubbock Lampoon Facebook page on October 11 and then was interviewed on KCBD the following day.

Lubbock Report asked Rowley why she came forward now – when she is running for reelection in the Nov. 3 General Election. At the same time, Parrish is running unopposed for reelection.

She came forward because she heard about another woman and current county employee who had an uncomfortable interaction with Parrish, she said. At that time, she knew about one but not both women who talked to Lubbock Report.

A ‘sickening’ pattern

Throughout this story, we’ll refer to the woman who worked in the county judge’s office as Jaylyn. Likewise, the woman who knows Parrish through a business connection will be called Valerie.

“I hear these stories from these two other women who I’ve spoken to and it is such a similar pattern and it’s sickening. There’s a whole lot of guilt,” said Valerie.

“You think, ‘What have you done wrong to attract that kind of attention?’” she said.

On one occasion, Parrish tried to kiss her on the mouth, she said.

“I wasn’t working directly for him,” Valerie explained.

And she thought the attempted kiss was a one-off situation. After Rowley came forward, Valerie talked to her – and later Jaylyn too.

“The thing that makes me so absolutely sure that both of these stories that I have heard firsthand are true is because there is such an obvious pattern to wanting to be behind closed doors – the hugs you can’t break away from that you think are just kind of a nice guy giving you a hug because he cares. Then it goes from there. There is such an obvious pattern to the discussion of out of the blue, ‘My wife and I don’t have sex much anymore.’ Who says that? In my mind at the time, I was like, ‘Weird,’” Valerie said.

But she never said anything publicly until now.

“I feel tremendous guilt that I was so oblivious to think, I guess, he just has this thing for me,” Valerie said.

‘The first red flag’

Jaylyn worked for the county starting in 2014 but transferred to the county judge’s office in 2017. Parrish won election in November 2018 and took office in January 2019.

“I was already working there one year prior to Curtis [Parrish] taking office,” she said.

The new boss wanted the office to run smoother, she said – new policies, new procedures.

“Of course, the door was closed because he preferred to keep the door closed when he had meetings with people. We were just chit chatting and trying to get to know each other,” Jaylyn said.

She described questions like, “What are your goals for the year,” and, “What do you want to see with the court in five years?”

“In the middle of that conversation, he kind of pauses, and I look over and I’m like, ‘Are you okay?’ And that’s when the conversation shifted to something completely unexpected. He was saying that he and [his wife] do not have sex, and they haven’t in a long time,” Jaylyn said.

“He continued with, ‘But a man has needs that aren’t being met.’ And that was the first red flag. At first, I really kind of wasn’t sure what to think about any of that,” Jaylyn said.

And then things were more normal for a while, she said. Her family and Parrish’s family were close.

“We would go to church together. We would go to their house for dinners. And they were both – he and [his wife] were kind of like a second set of parents in a way. It was someone that I really genuinely thought that I could trust,” she said.

‘So humiliated’

“[Parrish] would always hug me, as he did everybody else, but he would hug me longer than what I would consider appropriate for a friendly hug,” Jaylyn said.

She brought paperwork to his desk to sign.

“He would pull me in closer and bury his face in my breast. And that happened frequently. Then there were multiple times that I would see him trying to look down my shirt,” she said.

Another incident was especially humiliating, she said.

“[Parrish] told me he had a unique physical characteristic that’s uncommon for men,” Jaylyn said.

He wrote down a word, triorchidism, she said, and told her to look it up.

“I’ve never been so humiliated in my life – especially in a professional setting. And then I was afraid, ‘What if IT starts doing a search history and then they saw that I was Googling that and what would the repercussions be?’” Jaylyn said.

Traveling with his wife

Parrish always used his own funds – never county money – for his wife to travel with him on official business, Jaylyn said.

“She made every effort to go with us whenever we traveled out of town for conferences and meetings or just any other county-related businesses,” she said.

However, there was one trip when that didn’t happen. Parrish was traveling with the Jaylyn but not his wife. It was years ago and best she can recall, the trip was to Galveston.

“I had never seen Curtis consume alcohol, but that night was different,” she said.

She asked why he was drinking. The answer was simple. His wife wouldn’t let him, but she was not there to stop him this time Jaylyn said.

Parrish walked her back to her hotel room, she said.

“I thought that he was just accompanying me to the door. But unbeknownst to me, he followed me inside. And as I turned around and closed the door, he was standing directly behind me. And then he closed the door,” Jaylyn said.

“This is when he started kissing me with his tongue and running his hands all over my body. And I attempted to push him away. But rather than stopping, he pulled me back towards him and he continued kissing me. And then he grabbed my breast,” she said.

Eventually he stopped and left the room.

“There were so many emotions running through my head,” she said.

Asking the women about HR complaints

Rowley did not file an incident report with police or the Sheriff’s Department. She also did not file a written complaint with county HR Department.

She’s considering options to file official documentation with the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct or the Texas Bar, she told Lubbock Report.

The woman who had a business relationship with Parrish, Valerie, wasn’t a county employee and did not file a written complaint.

But Jaylyn went to HR with a verbal complaint.

“At one point, I’d even gone to HR and talked to them about what was going on,” she said.

Jaylyn’s trip to HR was after Parrish’s wife talked to some of the women who worked in the county judge’s office. She met with Parrish and his wife in his office.

“She told me that I was no longer allowed to close my door,” Jaylyn said.

But she said when her office door was closed, it was to keep trouble out.

“You’re not my boss. You’re not my supervisor. You’re not a county employee. You don’t have any authority over me or any of these girls,” Jaylyn quoted herself as saying in the meeting.

But then she quoted Parrish as saying, “This is what we’re going to do now. Just listen to her.”

“This probably happened a month before he fired me. So, that would have been approximately, either the end of May or beginning of June of 2022,” the employee said.

The employee didn’t feel the county’s HR department was protecting her rights as an employee.

Rhetorically she asked, “Do I have a safe place to go and talk to and report problems?”

Parrish gave her two weeks’ notice she was getting fired, Jaylyn said.

When she asked for an explanation, she was told it’s time, she said.

“I said, what do you mean it’s time? ‘It’s just time,’” Jaylyn said she asked and Parrish answered.

She felt she’d done a good job and said her work evaluations were good.

“He would always say, ‘You’re doing a great job. I can’t do this job without you. You make this office run. You are the backbone. You need a raise.’ And he told me that all the time,” Jaylyn said.

“I just felt like I did all of this for what? For him to violate me? To take advantage of me? I really, really loved this job in the beginning. I miss the people at Lubbock County,” said Jaylyn.

“I’m not sure what the next step is. It’s just really taken me a long time to even talk about it. And to know that there are other women that he has done this to is really what made me decide to come forward because he has to be stopped,” she said.

All three women who talked to Lubbock Report felt the HR department was either unable or unwilling to confront the judge.

Jaylyn clarified her trip to HR was in reference to Parrish’s wife conducting an inquiry and her termination. She did not make a sexual harassment complaint.

She had she had “serious concerns” about privacy if she had gone to HR. And because Parrish was an elected official, she felt like there was little chance of getting a resolution by going to HR.

“I never, ever gave that man any kind of inclination that I wanted this to happen. I never consented. In fact, I tried to pull away and he pulled me further, closer to him,” Jaylyn said.

The HR policy

Melanie Hall, the county’s HR director, declined to answer questions – instead saying we could call the county’s Civil Division and file an open records request. We did leave a message with an attorney in the Civil Division.

Lubbock Report located a copy of the county’s employee handbook.

It said, in part, “The County promotes and maintains a work environment free from discrimination, unlawful harassment, intimidation, and coercion.”

An employee sexually harassing someone faces potential consequences.

“Violations of the County’s policy against harassment are subject to disciplinary measures up to and including termination of employment,” it said,

However, the policy was also clear that employees and elected officials are not the same.

“An Elected Official is elected to fill a statutorily mandated position, is not considered an employee and is eligible for some County benefits …” it said.

County’s HR policy on sexual harassment (click to open)

2.03 Workplace/Sexual Harassment

The County promotes and maintains a work environment free from discrimination, unlawful harassment, intimidation, and coercion. Actions, words, name calling, teasing, jokes, threats, or any inappropriate behavior based on an individual’s sex, race, ethnicity, age, religion, or any other legally protected characteristic will not be tolerated.

Harassment is strictly prohibited at the County, whether committed by department leadership, co-workers, non-employees with whom the County does business, or other third parties.

Sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature, including reference to gender, stereotypes, and sexual orientation, when:

• submission to such conduct is made, either explicitly or implicitly, a term or condition of an individual’s employment,
• submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as a basis for employment decisions, or
• such conduct has the purpose or effect of interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.

Any employee who becomes aware of incidents of harassment in the workplace shall report such incidents, preferably in writing, immediately to their supervisor, department leadership, or Human Resources.

The supervisor or department leadership to whom a claim has been reported is responsible for reporting the claim to Human Resources promptly. Violations of the County’s policy against harassment are subject to disciplinary measures up to and including termination of employment. An employee who engages in acts of harassment contrary to this policy may be personally liable for any legal action brought against them.

An employee will not be subject to disciplinary measures of any kind for filing a good faith harassment claim. Complainants and witnesses acting in good faith, even if the complaint is unfounded, will be protected from retaliation.

The Texas Local Government Code doesn’t authorize commissioners or voters in a recall process to fire a county judge.

Instead, someone who has lived in the county for six months or more can file a lawsuit in State District Court seeking the judge’s removal. It would require proving misconduct.

The law said, “‘Official misconduct’ means intentional, unlawful behavior relating to official duties by an officer entrusted with the administration of justice or the execution of the law.”