Defense attorneys have asked that the $7 million lawsuit brought in the case involving two fired school employees be delayed until arbitrations have been completed. Timothy O. Egan of Peabody & Arnold filed papers in US District Court in Boston on March 18.

They cite the recent reversal of the arbitrator's decision in the case of Charles E. Coughlin Jr., a former Ottoson teacher, and the call for a new arbitrator. The arbitration involving Stavroula Bouris, the former principal who was dismissed in August 2007, two weeks after Coughlin, is ongoing.

The defendants in the $7 million lawsuit brought by a former Ottoson teacher and principal have asked for more time to prepare their answers. Attorney Timothy O. Egan filed a motion March 3 seeking an extension until March 19, court records show.

"The defendants state that this is a complicated matter," the motion says. "All of the defendants are still investigating the facts asserted. Some of the defendants are still in the process of finding legal counsel."

Feb. 9: Bouris, Coughlin sue schools for $7m | Feb. 13: Attorney for Levenson rejects allegations of retaliation

While the federal civil lawsuit filed on behalf of two fired school employees alleges retaliation and intimidation, the attorney for the former superintendent denies these charges and expects to file an answer seeking rejection of a number of counts.

Barry Klickstein, the attorney for Nate Levenson, said Feb. 12 that by June 2007 his client "had put [then-Ottoson Principal] Bouris behind him. He had worked out an arrangement so she could return. The last thing he wanted was to deal with e-mails. And that second pile was the last thing he wanted to see."

Two who were dismissed from the Ottoson Middle School in August 2007 filed a $7 million lawsuit in federal court Monday, Feb. 8, alleging that school officials wrongfully terminated them based on suspicions they were having an affair, Boston.com reported Feb. 9.

In a 45-page civil complaint filed in US District Court, the Web site said onetime Ottoson Middle School Principal Stavroula Bouris and Charles E. Coughlin, a technology teacher, allege their civil rights were violated when they were fired in 2007 by then-Superintendent Nathan Levenson.

The state Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) has declined to hear the case for a broad restraining order against J. James Marzilli of Arlington, the former Democratic state senator and 17-year state representative. Marzilli's trial on criminal charges of accosting four women in Lowell in June 2008 has been delayed from last April until sometime this spring. A date has not been set.

The SJC ruling of Dec. 22, 2009, rejected the case brought by attorney Wendy Murphy, a commentator about feminist issues, on behalf of three women. She sought to place a civil rights restraining order on Marzilli to bar him from harassing any woman in Massachusetts.

Terry Kennedy, one of Marzilli's attorneys, confirmed a Jan. 29 Lowell Sun report about another case before the SJC is set for March 1. In that one, Kennedy wants to dismiss the charge of attempted indecent assault and battery on the grounds that the notion of attempted assault is redundant and that no such crime exists in Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Appeals Court has rejected a request for a civil rights injunction against former state Sen. J. James Marzilli Jr. to bar him from harassing all women in Massachusetts, Boston.com reported Thursday, Oct. 22.

The court's ruling upheld a decision by a Superior Court judge who found that three women who claim they were groped and harassed by Marzilli are not entitled to an injunction on behalf of all women in the state.

"They got it right," Marzilli's attorney, Karen A. Colucci Pelletier, told YourArlington on Friday, Oct. 23, referring to the decision by the three-judge panel.