The attorney for a woman who sued the town of Marshall after it banned her from a public dance hall for making allegedly obscene moves has said that the case is finally settled.
Rebecca Willis will walk away with $275,000 from the town’s insurance fund in exchange for dropping her lawsuit. She won’t be allowed back in the dance hall. “I won my lawsuit,” she said on Thursday. “There’s really not much else I can say.”
Willis argued town officials violated her Constitutional rights to freedom of expression and equal protection when they banned her from Friday night dances at the Marshall Depot in December 2000.
The town maintained in court documents that residents complained that she danced in a sexually provocative manner, wearing short skirts while "simulating sexual intercourse with her partner who hunched on the floor." Some witnesses said in affidavits they could see Willis' undergarments and "privates."
The settlement came after the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals over turned a decision to dismiss her lawsuit, saying a jury could conclude that the town dance hall committee tried to single out Willis and punish her with its decision to ban her for life.
The settlement is larger that some wrongful death cases in Western North Carolina, attorneys not involved in the case have said.
Many thanks Debbie!
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