John Street Questions Greene's PHA Suit

PHILADELPHIA - PHA board chairman John Street doesn't think Carl Greene's suit against his bosses has merit, after Greene sued Philadelphia last night.

The PHA housing director claims Philadelphia breeched his $300,000 a year contract because due process wasn't followed by the PHA board.

The PHA board and others are investigating how four sexual harassment settlements involving Greene, totaling nearly $900,000, were kept from the board for years.

Greene has also faced a tax lien and mortgage foreclosure this year.

Street can't understand some of the reasons Greene used as a basis for the lawsuit.

"They are alleging a due process claim, which I am having a difficult time of seeing at the moment," Street said.

"I think there is a broader question here. Carl Greene sent this board a letter without talking to it, without getting permission, or any notice of any kind other than through the letter, that he was taking a leave of absence, and he was going away getting some kind of treatment until September 13."

"It is not yet September 13. By all accounts, he is on a leave of absence based on his own letter."

Street said that was an important point, because Greene's lawyer said in the lawsuit that Greene wasn't given a chance to interact with the PHA board.

"It does appear that the lawyer thinks the [PHA] board members can't talk. He says that his rights to due process were compromised because of our comments to the press, and that his client hasn't had an opportunity to even talk to us," Street said.

"His client went way out of his way to avoid any opportunity of communicating with the board."

Street also said that Greene's lawyer claims that there were confidentiality agreements in four lawsuits settled by Greene without the board's knowledge, that keep the board from discussing the cases publicly.

He said there were serious issues about the legality of that claim.

Lawyer Clifford Haines has said publicly that Greene has been in an out-of-state medical facility for several weeks.

On September 3, Street told Fox 29 that two more woman are now claiming Greene sexually harassed them.

Fox 29 spoke with Haines over the phone on September 3. He says the information Street was putting out is unsubstantiated and not verified.

In fact, Haines describes it as irresponsible. He also says it doesn't change his defense of Greene, and that Street is simply provoking an adversarial relationship.

The Pennsylvania Human Rights Commission also says they are continuing an aggressive investigation of the current claims, but to their knowledge, these two new alleged victims have not filed any complaints with them.