Ex-Grady CEO denies calling Stephenson ‘immoral woman’

The feud between two former CEOs of Grady Memorial Hospital continued Thursday, as one CEO filed court papers denying the other’s assertion that he said she was a sexually available woman.

The conflict between the two CEOs, Otis Story and Pamela Stephenson, goes back to his tenure at CEO in 2007 and his departure in early 2008. Stephenson was the head of the Grady board that fired him, and the board appointed her to replace him at the helm of the hospital.

This month, Stephenson filed court papers asserting that Story slandered her by telling others that she was a sexually available woman that he could have slept with. She based the assertion on an alleged conversation between Story and lobbyist Dan Copeland during a golf game.

Story’s reply, filed Thursday in Fulton County Superior Court, said he neither said she was sexually available to men other than her husband, nor that he could have had sex with her if he wanted to.

The court papers assert that Copeland did not tell the truth and that Stephenson’s court papers twisted what he said.

“Clearly, Story stated neither that Stephenson was ‘available’ to him sexually, nor that she was [a] ‘lewd and immoral woman,’ ” said Story’s response, filed by his attorney Lee Parks.

Story’s statements were “at most … expressions of opinion that he thought Stephenson ‘liked him’ or that he thought he could ‘woo’ her sexually,” Story’s court reply said.

Stephenson could not be reached for comment Thursday, but said earlier this week that Story’s alleged comments were untrue and hurtful to her and her family.

Copeland declined to comment.

Story stood by the assertion in his original lawsuit, that Stephenson orchestrated his dismissal in order to take his $600,000-a-year job. That case is slated to come to trial next month.