The simmering tension inside Dallas County government has boiled over into court. County Judge Vonda Bailey has filed a defamation lawsuit against longtime County Commissioner John Wiley Price, accusing the veteran politician of waging a public campaign to trash her reputation after she rejected what the suit describes as his personal overtures.
The complaint, filed this week in Dallas County district court, says Price repeatedly singled Bailey out during public Commissioners Court meetings. Her attorneys argue that his public comments about her attendance and case-clearance rate were false and that those remarks damaged her standing on the bench.
According to The Dallas Morning News, the lawsuit, filed Jan. 21 by Houston attorney Peter Clarke, alleges that Price displayed Bailey’s social media posts during commissioners meetings, then claimed she had been absent 131 days and had a 28% case-clearance rate. The outlet also reports that Price, a decades-long fixture on the commissioners court, did not immediately respond to requests for comment…