New York
CNN
—
Tucker Carlson’s prime producer, who left Fox Information together with the far-right host to work on his X show, is accused of sexually assaulting a former colleague in an alleged incident that occurred greater than a decade in the past.
Andrew Delancey, a former Fox Information worker, filed a lawsuit in opposition to Justin Wells, the previous government producer of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” accusing him of sexual assault and harassment in 2008 when Delancey moved to New York for a job with Fox Information’ affiliate video service.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in New York State court docket earlier than a deadline set below New York’s Adult Survivors Act, additionally names Fox Information and its mother or father firm Fox Company as defendants. The legislation gave survivors a one-year window to deliver claims in opposition to abusers, setting apart the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits.
Within the lawsuit, Delancey alleges that he was befriended by Wells who informed Delancey he may assist him “be taught the ropes” of the right-wing cable community. On the time Wells was a producer for Greta Van Susteren’s Fox Information present. The 2 males met for the primary time at Wells’ condo the place Delancey mentioned he was “aggressively pushed” on to Wells’ mattress and Wells “violently pressured his tongue” into Delancey’s mouth, in accordance with the go well with.
Delancey mentioned he yelled “no” and pushed Wells off him. Delancey additionally alleged that Wells assaulted him once more quickly after the preliminary incident within the condo constructing’s stairs earlier than he managed to go away.
Delancey mentioned within the lawsuit that he was “warned” in opposition to going to Fox’s human sources to report the assault and accused Wells of hindering his profession developments as a result of he “didn’t give in to Wells’s sexual calls for.”
“With out a protected avenue to complain, Mr. Delancey was pressured to come across his harasser within the office all through his time at Fox,” the grievance acknowledged.
“Following Wells’s threats, Mr. Delancey discovered his profession development at Fox to
be clearly halted, a departure from the promised profession developments and heat welcome that he had obtained when he arrived at Fox,” in accordance with the lawsuit. Delancey returned to his job at a Fox affiliate in Tampa.
In an announcement to CNN, Delancey’s lawyer Alfredo Pelicci mentioned that Delancey “will not be intimidated by Justin Wells or Fox” and the legislation agency is “dedicated to holding Mr. Wells and Fox accountable for his or her illegal and abhorrent actions.”
The lawsuit doesn’t specify damages.
In an announcement, Wells’ lawyer Harmeet Dhillon mentioned of Delancey’s lawsuit that “this meritless authorized motion was filed 15 years after the alleged incident and mere days earlier than the prolonged statute of limitations would have run.”
Wells “denies the allegations unequivocally, and can contest them vigorously,” Dhillon mentioned. “That is yet one more try by a legislation agency with a historical past of suing Fox and its former workers to money in on frivolous allegations.”
“As a common matter, should you imagine you’ve been the sufferer of a intercourse crime, you might have an ethical obligation to alert police, so it doesn’t occur to another person,” Tucker Carlson mentioned in an announcement to CNN. “If a person waits 15 years to money in with a civil go well with, nobody ought to take him severely. I actually don’t.”
In response, Pelicci mentioned that Carlson’s statements are a “basic instance of the techniques that folks with energy and affect use to insulate themselves from accountability and silence victims.”
Fox Information didn’t instantly reply to CNN’s request for remark.
The correct-wing community has been rife with lawsuits, together with most not too long ago from former producer Abby Grossberg, who mentioned the community fostered a deeply misogynist office. Maybe essentially the most high-profile outcomes of sexual harassment lawsuits at Fox Information have been CEO Rogers Ailes resigning in 2016 and Bill O’Reilly being forced out in 2017 amid a cloud of harassment allegations in opposition to them each.
Fox fired Carlson in April and canceled his program throughout the fallout from the $787 million lawsuit settlement between Fox Information and Dominion Voting Methods.