|
In response to
"WWE: Vince McMahon planning a comeback as decades old allegations of sexual abuse are being a looked at again, paywall at WSJ"
by
Remlik
|
I feel bad about it, but I grudgingly gave Murdoch $20 for a WSJ annual subscription. So, feel free to ask any time.
Posted by
David (aka David)
Dec 13 '22, 11:36
|
"Vince McMahon, the majority owner and former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., WWE -1.88%decrease; red down pointing triangle
is facing legal demands from two women who allege that he sexually assaulted them, according to internal documents and people familiar with the legal negotiations.
In a Nov. 3 demand letter to Mr. McMahon’s representative, a lawyer for former wrestling referee Rita Chatterton asked for $11.75 million in damages after she publicly accused Mr. McMahon three decades ago of raping her in a limousine. Mr. McMahon has long denied the allegations. The demand letter was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
In a separate November email to Mr. McMahon’s attorney, a lawyer for a former spa manager said that Mr. McMahon assaulted his client in 2011 at a California resort, an incident previously unreported in the media.
The private communications between lawyers for the women and Mr. McMahon’s longtime attorney, Jerry McDevitt, come as WWE tries to move past Mr. McMahon’s 40-year tenure as the company’s leader and into a new era.
Newsletter Sign-up
The 10-Point.
A personal, guided tour to the best scoops and stories every day in The Wall Street Journal.
Subscribed
Mr. McMahon retired as WWE chief executive and chairman in July amid a board investigation of sexual misconduct claims against him and after the Journal reported that he had agreed to pay more than $12 million in secret settlements since 2006 to suppress such allegations.
A screenshot from 1992 shows Rita Chatterton on Geraldo Rivera’s talk show. Vince McMahon has long denied the allegations.
The board investigation found that the payments to the women, though made by Mr. McMahon personally, should have been booked as WWE expenses because they benefited the company. A related board probe seeks to assess damage caused by Mr. McMahon’s secret pacts and to determine whether legal action against him by the WWE board is warranted, said people familiar with the matter.
Spokesmen for WWE and the company’s independent board members declined to comment. Mr. McMahon declined to comment. Mr. McDevitt didn’t respond to requests for comment.
WWE has declined to discuss the allegations against Mr. McMahon. The company previously said it was cooperating with the board inquiry and taking the claims seriously.
Advertisement
Stephanie McMahon, Mr. McMahon’s daughter, and former WWE president Nick Khan succeeded Mr. McMahon as co-chief executives, but Mr. McMahon remains the company’s largest shareholder.
WWE posted its first year of more than $1 billion in revenue in 2021, Mr. McMahon’s last full year at the company. Since he left, WWE’s shares have risen nearly 15% even as the settlement payments and the misconduct allegations triggered federal investigations, the Journal previously reported.
The Stamford, Conn., headquarters of World Wrestling Entertainment, which posted its first year of more than $1 billion in revenue in 2021.Photo: Johnny Milano/Bloomberg News
Mr. McMahon has told people he refuses to pay settlements to Ms. Chatterton and the former spa manager, people familiar with his comments said. WWE’s auditor, Deloitte & Touche LLP, has advised the company that resolutions of the claims, even if confidential, would possibly have to be disclosed by the company publicly, said a person familiar with the matter. Deloitte didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The 77-year-old Mr. McMahon also has told people that he intends to make a comeback at WWE, according to the people familiar with his comments. He has said that he received bad advice from people close to him to step down and that he now believes the allegations and investigations would have blown over had he stayed, these people said.
Ms. Chatterton, now 65 years old, was the first female referee in what was then called the World Wrestling Federation. She alleged in two televised interviews that Mr. McMahon raped her in the back of a limousine in New York in 1986. She said in the 1992 interviews that Mr. McMahon told her she had to satisfy him if she wanted a $500,000 contract with WWF.
WWF stopped booking her for appearances after the alleged rape in 1986, she said. The World Wrestling Federation changed its name to World Wrestling Entertainment in 2002.
Advertisement
Ms. Chatterton’s lawyer, John Clune, wrote in the Nov. 3 legal demand letter that the damages to Ms. Chatterton from the alleged rape were “hard to overstate.” The letter said she “has suffered years of ongoing depression, substance abuse, disordered eating, lost income, and overall a decreased quality of life.”
Former wrestler John Wisniski, pictured in 2004, says he doesn’t believe the sexual-assault allegations.Photo: John Barrett/Zuma Press
Ms. Chatterton referred the Journal to Mr. Clune, who declined to comment.
New York state recently opened a one-year window that allows victims to file sex-abuse lawsuits based on decades-old claims. The lookback window is part of the Adult Survivors Act, a law signed by the New York governor earlier this year.
Mr. McMahon alleged in a 1993 lawsuit that Ms. Chatterton was induced to make a false rape charge against him by a former wrestler with an ax to grind. The lawsuit said her attorney at the time demanded $5 million from Mr. McMahon to keep Ms. Chatterton’s allegations off the air. WWF dismissed her because she was a danger to herself and others in the ring, according to the lawsuit, which Mr. McMahon withdrew in 1994.
Mr. Clune, Ms. Chatterton’s current lawyer, said in the demand letter that Ms. Chatterton had passed a polygraph and that multiple sources corroborated her account, two of whom confirmed to the Journal that Ms. Chatterton contemporaneously told them about the alleged rape.
John Wisniski, who wrestled as Greg Valentine, told the Journal that Ms. Chatterton disclosed the allegations while the two were sharing a marijuana cigarette in a Marriott hotel parking lot in Albany, N.Y., in the 1980s. Mr. Wisniski said he didn’t believe Ms. Chatterton then or now, because he didn’t think she was attractive enough for Mr. McMahon.
Advertisement
Leonard Inzitari, who went to wrestling school with Ms. Chatterton, said in a magazine interview published earlier this year that Ms. Chatterton was shaking and crying as she recounted the alleged rape while the two of them stood outside the ring before a 1986 WWF event. Mr. Inzitari said in a call with the Journal that he stands by his comments and believes her allegations.
The former spa manager alleges she was assaulted by Mr. McMahon in 2011 at a five-star resort in Southern California while he was in town for a WWE event.
The spa manager reported the alleged assault at the time to the resort, according to people familiar with the matter.
The spa manager also told her husband about the incident, some of these people said. He drove to the WWE event with a baseball bat and tried to confront Mr. McMahon, but was turned away, according to these people.
The woman’s lawyer, Michael Bressler, has been in touch with Mr. McMahon’s attorney since at least July, according to people familiar with the discussions.
California, like New York, has a new law that allows alleged victims of sex abuse to file lawsuits that would otherwise be barred by the statute of limitations. Starting in January, victims will have a one-year window to file such claims."
|
Responses:
|
Replies are disabled on threads older than 7 days.
|
|
