Ex-Grammys President Neil Portnow Calls Rape Allegations “Ludicrous” and “Untrue” – Pitchfork
Yesterday (January 21), Deborah Dugan, the outgoing Recording Academy president and CEO, filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) discrimination complaint against her former employers. Along with allegations of abuse of power and corruption in the Recording Academy, the complaint included allegations of rape against Dugan’s predecessor Neil Portnow. Portnow, whose presidential tenure ended in 2019, has responded to the allegations, calling them “ludicrous” and “untrue,” Variety reports.
In a statement, according to Variety, Portnow wrote, “This [EEOC] document is filled with inaccurate, false and outrageous and terribly hurtful claims against me.” He reportedly elaborated:
The allegations of rape are ludicrous, and untrue. The suggestion that
there was is disseminating a lie. The baseless complaint about my
conduct referenced in the EEOC filing was immediately brought to the
attention of the Board of Director’s Executive Committee. An in-depth
independent investigation by experienced and highly regarded lawyers
was conducted and I was completely exonerated. There was no basis for
the allegations and once again I deny them unequivocally.
Deborah Dugan also alleged in the EEOC discrimination complaint that the Recording Academy’s board of trustees asked Dugan to hire Portnow as a consultant for $750,000 following his resignation; she says that she refused. Portnow, in his statement, claims he never asked for the $750,000 consulting fee, according to Variety.
Find Neil Portnow’s full statement at Variety. Pitchfork has reached out to representatives for the Recording Academy and lawyers for Deborah Dugan.
Elsewhere in the EEOC complaint, Deborah Dugan also claims that Joel Katz, an attorney at the law firm Greenberg Trauig and also general counsel to the Recording Academy, displayed “disconcerting and utterly inappropriate” behavior toward Dugan at a private dinner. Katz also allegedly attempted to kiss Dugan at the end of dinner despite her stated and repeated disinterest, Dugan claims.
Katz’s lawyer Howard Weitzman has now responded to the claims, Billboard reports. Weitzman reportedly called the claims “false” and stated, “Mr. Katz believed they had a productive and professional meeting in a restaurant where a number of members of the Board of Trustees of the Academy, and others, were dining.”
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