RALEIGH - The president of a restaurant chain specializing in barbecue and fried chicken goes to court this week to face accusations that he fired employees who rejected his sexual advances.

Gregory A. Moore, 51, who opened the first of 32 Smithfield's Chicken 'n Bar-B-Q locations in 1980 with his then-wife, Julia, has denied the accusations by three men who filed civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual harassment.

One of those men, Jason C. Hallaman, 39, is expected to testify today to a Wake County jury about the nine weeks he spent working for Moore in 2002 as a personal assistant before being fired. Hallaman hopes a jury awards him at least $10,000.

Jurors will likely hear Moore and Hallaman's accounts of Hallaman's firing before deciding whether he was unjustly fired.

Smithfield's Chicken 'n Bar-B-Q became an Eastern North Carolina roadside institution over nearly three decades of serving sweet tea, barbecue sandwiches and fried chicken plates. In a deposition, Moore describes working with his wife when the first restaurant opened in Salter Path in 1980.

The company now boasts its own line of merchandise -- hush puppy mixes, jars of barbecue sauce and beverage "coozies" featuring the company logo -- and most of the 32 locations are franchised.

The Moores, who have three children, divorced in 2002, and Julia Moore left the family business. Gregory Moore remains president of Smithfield Management Corp. and has contracts to manage the franchised restaurants.

Two of the three men who have filed harassment lawsuits were hired to be Moore's personal assistants during the months after his divorce. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has determined that Moore sexually harassed both men, Hallaman and Donald R. Mayes.

Mayes settled his lawsuit against Moore in July. The terms were confidential, said C. Scott Holmes, Mayes' attorney.

The third man, Randy Martin, filed suit last month. He worked for another company that Moore owned.

Moore, through court documents and his attorneys, has denied that he sexually harassed any of the three. He did not comment Tuesday, but his attorneys, Marvin and David Schiller, said the lawsuits were without merit and simply an attempt to get money.

"People say all sorts of things," Marvin Schiller said. "Many times, accusations are false."

Complaint detailed

Hallaman, who was hired in July 2002, states in his lawsuit that Moore propositioned him on several occasions. Hallaman is expected to testify about specific instances, including a trip to Moore's beach house on Topsail Island the day he started work. Hallaman claims that Moore, in the passenger seat of Moore's car, leaned over and put his face near Hallaman's crotch and made a sexually suggestive comment.

Hallaman alleges that on the same trip, he was told to accompany Moore to the beach one night and that Moore announced that "nighttime rules" required clothing-free dashes into the ocean. Hallaman stayed behind while a naked Moore ran into the water, Hallaman says.

In his complaint, Hallaman also describes taking a shower at Moore's lake house when Moore joined him, saying he needed to wash his hair. Hallaman says in the complaint that he left the shower "with all deliberate speed."

Hallaman maintains that each time he told Moore that he was heterosexual and not interested in engaging in sexual acts.

Charges denied

Moore, who describes himself in depositions as both bisexual and homosexual, denies touching Hallaman and claims he fired Hallaman because of a dispute over a check used to pay a detailing company that cleaned one of Moore's cars.

Moore accused Hallaman of forging the check and reported the incident to police. The charges against Hallaman were dropped, and Hallaman maintains that Moore told him to sign Moore's name.

(News researcher Denise Jones contributed to this report.)

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