Judge Napolitano Out At Fox News After Being Accused Of Sexually Harassing Young Men at Work In Lawsuit
Fox News just fired legal analyst Andrew Napolitano after a male producer accused Napolitano of sexual harassment. The related lawsuit also says Judge Nap sexually harassed other male employees of Fox.
The firing comes after one such employee, John Fawcett, filed a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court against the network where he detailed his claims against Napolitano.
Fox News said, “Upon first learning of John Fawcett’s allegations against Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News Media immediately investigated the claims and addressed the matter with both parties. The network and Judge Napolitano have since parted ways. We take all allegations of misconduct seriously, are committed to providing a safe, transparent, and collaborative workplace environment for all our employees and took immediate, appropriate action.”
“Furthermore, the additional allegations laid out in this claim are completely baseless and nothing more than a desperate attempt at a payday by trying the case in the court of public opinion as the complaint does not meet the standards of the law. We will defend the matter vigorously in court.”
From Deadline:
In the lawsuit, Fawcett, 27, claimed that when he started working at Fox Business in 2019 as an entry level production assistant working for Lou Dobbs’ show, he encountered Napolitano on an elevator at the Fox News headquarters. He alleged that Napolitano made sexually suggestive comments and stroked his arm.
After getting off the elevator, according to Fawcett’s lawsuit, he told colleagues about the encounter and “they immediately started laughing. “It was common knowledge that Judge Napolitano sexually harassed young men at Fox News, and it even happened to one of the plaintiff’s co-workers,” the lawsuit claimed.
Fawcett did not initially report the incident to human resources because he did not want to jeopardize his career at the network, but he did tell Dobbs. According to the lawsuit, Dobbs relayed the complaint to Kevin Lord, the executive vice president and chief human resources officer at Fox Corp.
Fawcett claimed that Lord then met with him and asked about the incident, but was dismissive of it.
Napolitano was the subject of separate claims of sexual misconduct last year, one in a lawsuit filed by a criminal defendant who claimed that Napolitano, when he was still a working judge, offered him a more lenient sentence in exchange for oral sex. Another was from a New Jersey waiter who claimed sexual assault.
From The Hill:
Andrew Napolitano is out as a contributor at Fox News as he faces allegations of sexual harassment contained in a lawsuit against the network filed Monday.
Napolitano, formerly a top legal analyst at the network, “sexually harassed numerous young male employees during his tenure at Fox News,” according a lawsuit filed by Fox Business production assistant John Fawcett.
Fawcett, 27, alleges that during a 2019 interaction in an elevator at Fox News headquarters, Napolitano stood “awkwardly close” to him and began stroking his arm. Napolitano told Fawcett he could come visit him on his horse farm in New Jersey and “suggestively” said his hands “get really dirty,” according to the lawsuit.
Napolitano did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fox News fires analyst Andrew Napolitano after accusations from male producer that he made sexually suggestive comments towards him https://t.co/j7gX9YDB0C
— Jack Posobiec, IWO (@JackPosobiec) August 2, 2021