‘Sexual Harassment’ Doesn’t Begin To Cover It: Lawsuit Against Former Texas Solicitor General Goes Interstellar

Somehow, the partner explaining, “In this firm, there are no rules… You can say whatever slurs you want” manages to not be the wildest allegation in this complaint. Which is impressive, given that most lawsuits would consider that the final boss of batshit quotes.

Former Texas Solicitor General Judd Stone rose Chief Counsel to Ted Cruz to the SG’s office. Along with Chief of the General Litigation Division Christopher Hilton, Stone stepped back from his official role as SG to start Stone Hilton PLLC for the purpose of defending Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the impeachment trial brought because even Texas Republicans had enough of Paxton’s nonsense. After successfully staving off Paxton’s much deserved impeachment, Stone returned to his perch as the top appellate lawyer for the Lone Star State.

But not for long.

After returning to the government, former staffer Jordan Eskew, the plaintiff in the instant lawsuit, opened up to First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster about everything that transpired under the Stone Hilton roof. And according to the allegations, Stone didn’t just flout employment law, he made it something of a competitive sport. As one might imagine of a slur-friendly office, Stone Hilton allegedly operated under a management philosophy best summed up as “HR violations, but make it baroque.”

Yelling from the railings like a summer stock Shakespeare villain, discussing “people putting sexual organs in [a female employee’s] mouth,” and “getting screamed at and berated to ‘cry,'” are all vignettes of a day in the life of the firm recounted in the complaint. Eskew also alleges that she was shorted on pay… on top of everything else.

And that’s all before we get to the asteroid. There’s a celestial object subplot!

Once Eskew’s allegations (and those of another employee, Amy Hilton — unrelated to Christopher Hilton — not in the lawsuit) reached Webster, well…

Webster confronted Judd Stone and Christopher Hilton about Amy Hilton’s and Plaintiff’s allegations, and Stone promptly admitted that all of the allegations were true and that the actions described by Amy Hilton and Plaintiff did indeed happen, and Christopher Hilton did not contest the allegations made by Amy Hilton and Plaintiff.

The first rule of employment discrimination Fight Club is you do not admit to employment discrimination Fight Club. It’s also the second rule, which the complaint says he breached when he admitted the charges again when probed by Judge Grant Dorfman. But, Stone argued, “it was “okay” because it was during their time at a private law firm.”

Since this is not at all how the law works, Judge Dorfman told them if they didn’t resign they would be fired. So they resigned.

But we’ve still not gotten to the asteroid!

Webster wrote an email summarizing the events that brought the office to this point.

The first female employee came to me on October 13, 2023. I asked Ralph Molina to join the conversation with me, so that I had a witness. Through many tears, she told me stories of Judd discussing sexual things with her, specifically regarding a disturbing sexual fantasy Judd had about me being violently anally raped by a cylindrical asteroid in front
of my wife and children.

I think once it makes it to Earth he technically wanted Webster “anally raped by a cylindrical meteorite in front of my wife and children.” Common mistake, but if we don’t strive for precision what are we even doing here?

You might think this is the most reprehensible thing he could’ve possibly said, but then again, he argued Whole Women’s Health. In all seriousness though, if you haven’t figured out that the venn diagram of “dudes with violent rape fantasies” and “guys who believe in authorizing vigilantes to go after abortion providers” is a nearly perfect circle, you’re not paying attention.

As bad as this is, everything’s bigger in Texas including the scandals.

According to this employee, Judd publicly described this in excruciating detail over a long period of time, to a group of OAG employees, Office of the Governor employee(s), federal judges, and other non-government employees at a table.

GUYS! He told the asteroid rape story to federal judges?!? Please tell us which ones. Stone clerked for Edith Jones, last seen having an unhinged meltdown that criticizing judge selection rules was a functional death threat. Would love to know if she heard this story and if so, where casually discussing “sexually assaulting someone with a fictional space rock” fits in her ranking of inappropriate violent rhetoric. Probably still below “suggesting that cases be assigned randomly throughout a district.”

So we have a firm that allegedly operated on “slurs are free speech,” sexual harassment as a punchline, and intergalactic assault fantasy stories with federal judges. That’s the Texas Trifecta right there.

(Complaint on the next page…)

Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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