As many as 14 more Loudoun County employees may be implicated in the ongoing lawsuit between former county assessor Todd Kaufman and top county officials.

A Sept. 7 hearing in Loudoun County Circuit Court is set to rule on Kaufman’s motion to add the additional defendants, according to Peter Cohen, Kaufman’s attorney. The lawsuit, claiming defamation of character, was originally filed July 7 against County Administrator Tim Hemstreet, County Attorney John Roberts and John Nelson, the supervising appraiser of the commercial division in the county assessor’s office. James Cross, an attorney with Crossroads Mediation Services in Manassas, is also listed as a defendant.

Cohen, of the Charlson, Bredhoft, Cohen Brown and Sakata law firm in Reston, said most, if not all, of the 14 county employees Kaufman wants added to the suit are within the county assessor’s office.

Detailed in the suit are scathing allegations against Kaufman, including complaints of sexual harassment, sexism, religious insensitivity, a hostile work environment, workplace violence and misuse of county equipment.

Kaufman denies the allegations, which he says was a conspiracy by Nelson, the disgruntled employee, to get him fired. The former assessor, who’s seeking $10 million in damages, has requested a jury trial to resolve the issue.

“The allegations speak for themselves. He was hired to do a job and he did it. He created a county assessor’s office that is now one of the best in Virginia,” Cohen said in July. “Mr. Kaufman feels strongly about how the county officials handled the situation and feels they should be held accountable for it.”

The assessor’s contract was terminated June 5 by the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors after Kaufman spent more than six weeks on paid administrative leave. Slated to make $147,000 in 2012, he earned more than $17,000 of county money while on leave.

Editors John Geddie and Crystal Owens contributed to this story.

For past coverage, see Former accessor claims defamation by county employees