In a lawsuit filed in Dallas' 44th District Court on Thursday, state Senator Royce West claims a resident of his district has consistently defamed him and has, more recently, begun stalking him at campaign and other events, including a pair of funerals.
At the events West cites, Bennie Jeffery held signs accusing West of being a "dirty crook" and verbally harassed the senator, the suit claims.
The most recent incident included in the suit occurred at a public event at the Barack Obama male Leadership Academy on June 6. West claims the defendant "took his ill-will to a new and dangerous level" and that " a barrage a racial epithets and profanity [caused] West to believe he was in imminent danger and fear for his personal safety and welfare."
Dallas police were notified of the June 6 incident and issued Jeffrey a citation for disorderly conduct. The suit claims that the citation and the events that lead to it prove that Jeffery's "malevolent obsession with West and his public denigration and defamation of the senator has now crossed a line into dangerous fixation."
West's suit seeks both temporary and permanent injunctions against Jeffrey. which would restrict him from any contact with West -- physical, written, by text, phone or otherwise. The defendant would be restrained from coming within 1,000 feet of the senator.
The suit also seeks damages for defamation, because, the suit alleges, Jeffrey called West a "dirty crook" and made other accusations against West he knew were false.