Nate Holden

* Re the Nate Holden sexual harassment suit, for which we taxpayers are now expected to pick up the bill for his defense, I’d like to raise a consideration. In law, there is a concept known as “course and scope of employment.”

This simply means that if an employee has done something for which (s)he is then sued, one of the elements of that damage suit is whether or not that employee was doing something “inside or outside” of what their employment duties might have been at the time.

If it is found that the employee engaged in an activity, during his hours of employment, which was outside the “course and scope of his/her employment,” then his employer cannot be held liable.

Since sexual harassment is patently outside the course and scope for which we taxpayers employed Holden to represent us, it would appear that we, the taxpayers, certainly cannot, either legally or morally, be held liable for any of the costs incurred by Holden in his defending himself.

As a person who was falsely accused and subsequently cleared of the same charge, I sympathize with his situation. What I cannot accept is that we taxpayers be expected to take care of his legal defense.

TODD MARTIN

Los Angeles