Any text messages from now until Sept. 4 from Mayor Paul Winfield that mention Kenya Burks’ name or might involve her must be produced in federal court, according to a judge’s order signed Thursday.

“After careful consideration, the court finds that Paul Winfield must produce all text messages and cellular phone messages to Kenya Burks from July 1, 2009 to April 18, 2011,” read the order, signed by Magistrate John M. Roper in Burks’ sexual harassment suit against Winfield and the city. “Mr. Winfield must also produce any text message containing Ms. Burks’ name or containing information about or regarding her on or prior to September 4, 2012.”

The end of the court’s time frame for Winfield to produce cellphone records coincides with the date Burks’ job as the mayor’s chief of staff was eliminated by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. In previous orders in the case, such production would occur in a closed session of the court. Whether the second part of the order opened Winfield’s phone activity to an additional 17 months of scrutiny wasn’t clear.

Roper’s directive came after two requests from Winfield’s lawyers that his cellphone records be kept out of the case, each time citing privacy concerns for the mayor’s business and legal clients.

Counsel for both parties and Roper conferred by phone in a case management conference Thursday.

Burks is suing the city and Winfield for more than $1.5 million in the suit, active in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. It asks for a jury trial.

In court filings, Burks claims she was subjected to a hostile work environment while working in the mayor’s office and retaliation after what she says was a soured consensual affair. Winfield has denied claims of sexual relations. Burks held her job title from July 2009 to April 2011.

Burks is represented by Nick Norris and Louis H. Watson Jr. of Jackson. Winfield is represented by attorneys Robert Gibbs and Vikki J. Taylor, and the city is represented by attorney Gary Friedman, all of Jackson. The first-term mayor has said the city’s defense costs will be reflected in premiums paid to its insurance carrier and that no city funds will pay Friedman directly.