Former Roanoke Sheriff George McMillan was back in federal court Tuesday as his attorney tried to argue down the award from a deputy's sexual harassment lawsuit.

There was no final decision after Tuesday's hearing, but the $325,000 verdict awarded to former Deputy Lespia King in January seems likely to be cut almost in half.

Three months ago, a jury said King was due $50,000 in compensatory damages from the sheriff's office, $175,000 from McMillan personally in compensatory damages and $100,000 from McMillan in punitive damages.

Since the verdict, attorneys have argued that the $175,000 compensatory award against McMillan should be lowered.

King, who worked for McMillan at the Roanoke jail for four years ending in 2004, accused the sheriff of improperly touching her, asking her for kisses or to sit in his lap, and saying she should drop her boyfriend to have a relationship with him. Nine other women testified that they too had endured inappropriate behavior by the sheriff.

On Tuesday, McMillan's attorney, Elizabeth Dillon, argued that the compensatory figure assigned to McMillan was too high in relation to the compensation ordered from the sheriff's office. Because the lawsuit contained a sexual harassment claim against the sheriff's office and a battery claim against McMillan, it seemed disproportionate to assign a higher compensation to the battery, a single incident of improper touching, when it was just one element of the ongoing pattern of harassment, Dillon said.

Attorney Terry Grimes, who represented King, said jurors might have decided that McMillan was more to blame than the sheriff's office and assigned payment accordingly.

"I've never had a case where a woman had to hide, felt she had to hide under her desk to get away from a superior. That's what makes it so egregious," Grimes said.

During the trial, King had testified that McMillan's attentions were so alarming that she hid under a desk, locked herself in a bathroom or kept prisoners around her to avoid being alone with McMillan.

Dillon said King had described perhaps 22 incidents involving the sheriff. She suggested that because the battery claim was tied to a single occasion, a proper amount for McMillan's compensatory payment might be ¹₂₂ of the $50,000 award against the sheriff's office, or about $2,273.

U.S. District Judge Samuel Wilson broke into Dillon's argument, saying the formula she suggested "seems somewhat mechanical" and telling the attorney she was "parsing it in too rigid a manner."

Dillon persisted. "There has to be some way we can look at it and analyze it and come up with a number," she said.

The motion brought by the defendant Tuesday was a request for remittur, legal terminology for an action in which a judge gives a plaintiff a choice between a lower monetary judgment or a new, limited jury trial to consider damages.

In a court filing from February, Grimes said he had tried to settle the issue and suggested $20,000 might be a good figure for compensatory damages from the sheriff.

In court Tuesday, Grimes said it would be unfair to witnesses and others involved in the case to try it again.

Wilson said he will make a decision on lowering the compensatory damages soon.

Still to be resolved in the case are King's attorney fees, which Grimes said he would move to collect from the defendants after judgment is entered in the case, and possible appeals of the jury verdict to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.