A former Apex town council member has sued North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore, of Cleveland County, over an alleged “adulterous extramarital affair” with his wife that led to the “destruction of his marriage.”
In the lawsuit, Scott Lassiter, also a Republican, writes that the alleged affair with Jamie Liles Lassiter — a state employee — was “more than the ordinary dalliance of an unfaithful spouse and an unscrupulous paramour.”
Moore’s office released a statement to WFAE Monday that said “this is a baseless lawsuit from a troubled individual. We will vigorously defend this action and pursue all available legal remedies.”
Jamie Liles Lassiter has also denied the allegations, according to media reports.
The lawsuit states that the affair “revealed a perverse form of symbiosis in which (Moore) persuaded her to engage in degrading acts to satisfy his desires.” It also states that Jamie Liles Lassiter hoped that Moore would support “favorable action” for the N.C. Conference of Clerks of Superior Court, where Jamie Liles Lassiter is the executive director.
The lawsuit, filed Sunday, wasfirst reported by WRAL.
WRAL reported that Moore released a statement to the TV station saying the lawsuit is baseless. Jamie Liles Lassiter also told WRAL that the allegations are “false.”
The Lassiters were married in 2013 but separated at the beginning of this year, according to the lawsuit.
North Carolina is one of a handful of states where a spouse can sue a third party over “alienation of affection.” That essentially gives jilted spouses the ability to file a lawsuit over an affair. Scott Lassiter is seeking at least $25,000 in damages.
The lawsuit claims that the alleged affair started in 2019.
It says that Scott Lassiter “surveilled” his wife on the night of Dec. 21, 2022, after hearing “persistent rumors” about an affair between Moore and his wife.
The lawsuit says that Jamie Liles Lassiter told her husband she was going to see a movie with friends; instead she went to dinner with Moore at Sullivan’s Steakhouse in Raleigh. The lawsuit says they then went to Moore’s house “where they spent several hours together.”
The lawsuit includes a photo of the two together, allegedly taken as they left the steakhouse.
It also says that Scott Lassiter contacted Moore about the alleged affair and that the two met at a Biscuitville in Raleigh on Dec. 26, 2022.
The lawsuit claims that Moore admitted to a “a multi-year sexual relationship” with Jamie Liles Lassiter.
It also claims that Jamie Liles Lassiter told her husband that she had the affair for years. The lawsuit says that she told Scott Lassiter that she was worried she would lose her job if she ended the affair.
It also states that at the end of the Dec. 26 meeting Moore asked Scott Lassiter “on a completely unrelated note if there was anything he could do for (Scott Lassiter), implying that he could use the power he held as Speaker in some way to benefit (him).”
The lawsuit also claims that Moore hired or asked an unknown person — listed as John Doe in the lawsuit — to install in early June a motion-activated surveillance camera outside Scott Lassiter’s home in Cary. Scott Lassiter alleges that the reason for installing the camera was to find information that could be used against Scott Lassiter and convince him not to “pursue his valid legal claims” against Moore.
The lawsuit also states that Scott Lassiter discovered the camera and replaced it with one of his own. It states that John Doe realized the camera had been replaced and then returned to the house in an attempt to break the new camera.
