Hannah Yasharoff
USA TODAY
Published 6:03 PM EST Jan 22, 2020
Ex-Grammys President Neil Portnow is denying rape allegations from his ousted successor, Deborah Dugan.
Part of Dugan’s explosive complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleges that a foreign recording artist accused Portnow of raping her following a performance that she gave at Carnegie Hall. The complaint says that despite knowledge of this, the board requested Dugan approve a $750,000 consulting fee for Portnow, which she denied.
In a statement to USA TODAY provided by representative Sallie Olmsted, Portnow called Dugan’s claims “inaccurate, false and outrageous and terribly hurtful,” adding that he would “vigorously defend all false claims.” He also denied the $750,000 consulting fee.
“The allegations of rape are ludicrous, and untrue,” the statement continued. “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.”
More: Ousted Recording Academy CEO alleges sexual harassment, corrupt Grammys voting
Portnow’s contract with the academy was not renewed after he said women needed to “step up” when asked about the lack of female winners at the Grammys in 2018.
“After making the ‘step up’ comment during the 2018 telecast, for which I have apologized and deeply regret the offense caused, and understanding the power of listening and lessons learned, I took action,” Portnow’s statement said. “I proposed, and the Academy created an independent Task Force to review the state of diversity & inclusion across the organization. After presenting the Task Force plan and proposed study of the organization to the board, the group was created to implement change. Task Force Chair Tina Tchen made a presentation to the full Board during a May 2019 meeting.”
On Tuesday, just days before the Grammy Awards, Dugan filed a discrimination complaint alleging unlawful gender discrimination, sexual harassment, unlawful retaliation and unequal pay against the academy.
The complaint accuses the academy of improper self-dealing by board members, voting irregularities with respect to nominations for Grammy Awards, shunning Dugan’s attempts at fostering diversity and transparency, and other misconduct.
Previously: Grammy chief, Recording Academy president Neil Portnow to step down in 2019
The academy pushed back Tuesday.
“It is curious that Ms. Dugan never raised these grave allegations until a week after legal claims were made against her personally by a female employee who alleged Ms. Dugan had created a ‘toxic and intolerable’ work environment and engaged in ‘abusive and bullying conduct,'” read a statement from the academy, sent by spokesperson Lourdes Lopez.
The statement continues: “When Ms. Dugan did raise her ‘concerns’ to HR, she specifically instructed HR ‘not to take any action’ in response. Nonetheless, we immediately launched independent investigations to review both Ms. Dugan’s potential misconduct and her subsequent allegations. Both of these investigations remain ongoing.”
Contributing: Rasha Ali and Andrea Mandell
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