Co-workers recall how affair began

As hanky-panky between orthodontist David Harris and his office receptionist became more obvious, other workers fretted that his judgment might be slipping and his dental practice might be swamped by scandal, witnesses testified Monday.

For the first time in days, testimony in Clara Harris' murder trial brought a faint smile to her face. Monday, the third day of defense testimony, also was Harris' 45th birthday.

She is accused of deliberately running over her husband with her Mercedes-Benz in a fit of jealous rage after finding him at a Clear Lake City hotel with his mistress. The fatal incident happened July 24 after a violent confrontation in the hotel lobby.

Dental public relations woman Diana Sherrill testified that the entire staff of David Harris' Space Center Orthodontics was suspicious about their boss' relationship with Gail Bridges.

"You could almost feel the chemistry between them," Sherrill said. " ... All the other office workers were nice, but they'd be physically ill by the time they left for the day. They didn't say anything for fear of losing their jobs."

Before Bridges, a divorced mother of three, joined the clinic in mid-2001, Harris gave all appearances of being a devoted family man, Sherrill said.

He and his wife, who had a dental practice in Lake Jackson, owned six dental offices in the Houston area and frequently saw each other's patients.

"He was very proud of Clara," she recalled. "He said he wished he could clone her and put her in every single office."

Office manager Cathey Davis testified that Clara Harris was madly in love with her husband.

But with Bridges' arrival, the two witnesses told jurors, things quickly went downhill. Sherrill said David Harris, who once had spent free time making business deals over a back-office telephone, now hung around the front desk flirting with Bridges.

Susan Hanson, a dental clinic executive, noted that "Clara had taken a back seat in his relationship."

"She was no longer No. 1," Hanson said. "In the past, he would always run to the phone when she called. Now he started saying he'd call her back or leaving her on hold."

Office workers were struck by Bridges' boldness in the office and out, the witnesses said. Hanson testified about comforting the orthodontist's teenage daughter, Lindsey, after she witnessed Bridges provocatively bending over in her father's presence.

Sherrill testified about how Bridges, accompanying Harris and office workers to lunch at a nearby restaurant, bolted to join their boss on the front seat of his truck. Then she twice laughingly patted his chest and fumbled with coins in the vehicle's console.

"I had worked for him four years," Sherrill said, "and I didn't know where things were in his truck."

On July 16, Sherrill told jurors, she finally shared her suspicions with Clara Harris.

"I told her she needed to protect her marriage -- not to ignore anything out of the ordinary, maybe go to counseling to get help," Sherrill said. "Sometimes men go through change of life, and maybe that's what was happening to David."

Then, she said, she and the defendant went to a salon, where Harris had her hair cut and colored.

In cross-examination, assistant District Attorney Mia Magness suggested through questioning that the women's testimony may have been rooted in a personal dislike for Bridges. She suggested that Bridges threatened their job security by usurping their responsibilities and becoming friendly with their boss.

In a lightning-fast barrage of questions, Magness asked whether the witness had seen how Harris looked and behaved when angry.

Earlier Monday, chief defense attorney George Parnham failed in his effort to have admitted as evidence photos showing bruises his client had suffered in her July 24 fight with Bridges at the Nassau Bay Hilton.

Maria Perkins, an architect, interior decorator and friend of David and Clara Harris, testified that Clara Harris had bruises on her arms, face, thighs and elbows several days after the incident.

John Tyler, who was attending a Bible study class at the hotel when the fight broke out, testified that he saw David Harris grab his wife by the face and fling her to the floor.

"It scared me to death," he told jurors. "Up until that time, the fight had been just two women -- not to minimize that. But when he put his hands on her, it brought it to a whole new level. It certainly looked violent to me."

"You told police that the defendant was punching Bridges, ripping her clothing and wouldn't let go," Magness said in cross-examination.

Noting that others had tried unsuccessfully to separate the two women, Magness asked if David Harris acted unreasonably when he intervened.

Orthodontist's affair hurt office morale, defense witness says

Worker says she warned wife of problems a week before man was run over

02/04/2003

Associated Press

HOUSTON - A woman who once worked for a Houston-area orthodontist testified Monday that his affair with a fellow employee poisoned the office environment and led her in July to warn the doctor's wife, a dentist accused of running him down with her Mercedes-Benz a week later.

Diana Sherrill told jurors Monday that she saw a change in David Harris last summer as he got closer to receptionist Gail Bridges. It was a contrast to the businesslike demeanor he once had at the office, she said, as Clara Harris' murder trial began its third week.

"Other office workers were nice to ... [Ms. Bridges] but physically ill seeing what was going on in the office ... but didn't say anything for fear of losing their jobs," said Ms. Sherrill, a defense witness for Clara Harris.

Ms. Sherrill had worked exclusively at the Harrises' Lake Jackson dental office before transferring to Space Center Orthodontics in far southeast Houston in June. David Harris, 44, spent most of his time at Space Center. She testified that she returned on July 16 to Lake Jackson Dental Care, where David Harris only spent a day or two a week, because she couldn't stomach witnessing an obvious affair bloom.

Back at Clara Harris' practice, Ms. Sherrill said, she tried to tell her there were problems.

"I told her she needed to protect her marriage, not to ignore anything out of the ordinary," Ms. Sherrill said. "Pay attention to Dr. David, maybe get to counseling. I wanted her to be able to start seeing the things I had seen."

Clara Harris, who turned 45 on Monday, began overhauling her appearance after the warning, Ms. Sherrill said. Ms. Sherrill said that by July 25, the day after Clara Harris ran over her husband, Clara Harris had lost 15 to 20 pounds, lightened her hair and wore more provocative clothing.

"That wasn't Dr. Clara at all. She is a classy woman," she said.

Another witness, office manager Susan Hanson, testified that Clara Harris also scheduled breast augmentation and liposuction surgery, bought a new wardrobe and began artificially tanning within a day of David Harris admitting his affair on July 17.

"Clara was shattered. She was humiliated," said Ms. Hanson.

Clara Harris ran over her husband the night of July 24 after confronting him and Ms. Bridges inside a hotel in suburban Clear Lake. Clara Harris' defense attorneys say it was an accident, but prosecutors say it was intentional.

Ms. Sherrill's testimony was peppered by objections, most of them sustained, by prosecutor Mia Magness.

Earlier Monday, a witness described a fight between Clara Harris and Ms. Bridges in the hotel lobby minutes before David Harris' death. John Tyler, a spokesman for the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said that Clara Harris began punching Ms. Bridges and that the women were scuffling on the floor when David Harris and others tried to separate them.

On cross-examination, Mr. Tyler said David Harris appeared to have stepped in because Clara Harris was getting the better of Ms. Bridges.

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/tsw/stories/020403dntexdentist.1fac3.html

The results of adultery: One dead, one tried for murder, a family (three children's lives) destroyed.

When will people realize that engaging in high-risk behavior has consequences?

Adultery is wrong - not b/c every major religion frowns on it - but b/c there is a price to pay - even if the price is not as drastic as the Harris case.

Our culture is bombarded with wrong messages put out by the warped denizens of Follywood that adulterous - and other permissive sexual behavior - is somehow acceptable. Just another way to get one's kicks.

Not everyone is going to act like a saint, but we need to have a better understanding of high-risk behavioral impact on individuals and our culture.

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Clara Harris 'was no longer No. 1' to dentist

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Dr. Clara Harris