She accuses him of sexual harassment. He calls the charge a cover for the “real reason” behind the complaint — her opposition to his anti-pornography crusade.

Now an escalating feud between Los Angeles neuroscientist Nicole Prause and San Antonio neurosurgeon Donald L. Hilton Jr. has landed in court. Hilton is in private practice but serves as a adjunct associate professor in the Department of Neurology at UT Health San Antonio.

Last month, Hilton, 59, filed a defamation lawsuit against Prause, 40, and her sexual research firm Liberos LLC. Her allegation that he sexually harassed her is false and cost him “worry, mental anguish and time and stress,” he said in the suit that seeks as much as $10 million in damages.

Prause and Liberos disputed the defamation claim in an answer filed Monday. The case was filed in Bexar County District Court, but was removed Wednesday to federal court in San Antonio.

“Defendants assert the defense of truth,” they said.

Prause sent emails in April to the Office of General Counsel at the University of Texas System and others to say she was “being openly sexually harassed by your faculty member Dr. Donald Hilton.” The emails were included as exhibits in Hilton’s lawsuit.

“Specifically, he publicly claims that I personally appear in pornographic films, attend the Adult Video Network awards, and molest children in my laboratory, because I trained at The Kinsey Institute,” Prause said in one email. “These are all demonstrably false.”

Hilton “clearly uses his UT affiliation to promote sexual harassment,” she added. “As a female scientist, he is uniquely attacking my gender with these false claims about my sexuality.”

UT System spokeswoman Karen Adler said it has no authority to take up Prause’s complaint.

“While Dr. Hilton holds an adjunct appointment related to the education of neurosurgery residents, he is not a paid employee of UT Health San Antonio,” Adler said. “Additionally, Nicole Prause is not associated with a UT institution. The UT System has no jurisdiction regarding this complaint.”

Hilton responded to the complaint by suing Prause and Liberos on May 8, saying her complaint was “specifically designed to destroy (his) reputation and career.”

Hilton has had only “one personal encounter” with Prause, he said in the suit. It occurred in a crowded meeting room Nov. 14, 2009, after he gave a presentation. Their meeting was captured in a photo, which was included as an exhibit with Hilton’s suit. The two have not interacted since, the suit said.

The “real reason” Prause lodged the complaint has to do with their diametrically opposing views on pornography, the suit continued. The two have clashed “over the years on social media and in internet forums,” it added.

The suit described Hilton as an “internationally recognized expert on the subject of how pornography adversely impacts the brain.” He has written about pornography leading to actual addiction. He authored “He Restoreth My Soul: Understanding and Breaking the Chemical and Spiritual Chains of Pornography Addiction Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.”

Two years ago, Hilton spoke at the Vatican on the topic of “Pornography and the Developing Brain: Protecting the Children.” He met with Pope Francis afterward, Hilton’s suit said.

Prause has argued that there is extensive evidence to show “the hypothesis that pornography is universally harmful is false,” according to an op-ed she co-authored in 2016 for the Salt Lake Tribune.

“At a minimum, it is clear that sex films do not have even primarily negative effects,” the op-ed said. “Teaching children that science unequivocally indicates negative outcomes from sex films, as (the nonprofit anti-porn group Fight the New Drug) does, is inaccurate.”

An attorney for Prause emailed a statement from her after she was contacted for comment on Hilton’s lawsuit.

“Many people are uncomfortable with science,” Prause said. “However, facts matter. The facts that your readers should know are simple: I study sexual science based on neuroscience and physiology. I was trained in addictions at Harvard, won many awards, and enjoy debate.

“I have never received support from, or been involved in, the porn industry, including the AVN awards, or made false reports,” she added. “Facts do not care about religious morality or activism. … There is no need to defame my character.”

Hilton belongs to a “religious right group” that has spread falsehoods about her, Prause said in her complaint to the UT System. Hilton and his wife have worked as program coordinators of an addiction recovery program for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Dan Packard, a lawyer for Hilton, declined to comment. The suit said Hilton never claimed Prause appeared in any pornographic film or that she molested children in her lab.

Prause has a “pattern of falsely accusing academicians and activists who disagree with her,” the suit added.

She has attempted to “silence her critics by falsely accusing them,” the suit said. It named nine people who are willing to testify as to Prause’s “unprofessional and defamatory behavior.”

As part of his suit, Hilton seeks a permanent injunction barring Prause from making any “further false or disparaging written or oral communications” about him.

Patrick Danner is a San Antonio-based staff writer covering banking and civil courts. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPD