UPDATED with remark from Eckhart: A federal decide dismissed Fox Information from a sexual assault lawsuit {that a} former worker filed towards former anchor Ed Henry.
U.S. District Decide Ronnie Abrams rejected Jennifer Eckhart‘s retaliation and different claims. Eckhart, a former affiliate producer for the community, alleged that Henry sexually harassed and raped her.
“Fox Information didn’t have precise discover of Henry’s alleged misconduct in direction of her till she first reported it to the community via her counsel on June 25, 2020 — three years after their final sexual encounter,” the decide wrote in his dismissal. “As soon as the community lastly discovered of his habits, its response was the alternative of forgiveness: it swiftly investigated and terminated him simply six days later.”
Henry, who now works at Newsmax, has claimed that the sexual relations with Eckhart had been consensual.
The decide additionally dismissed a revenge porn declare towards Henry however denied his movement to toss claims of gender-motivated violence, assault, battery, intercourse trafficking and harassment. A trial is scheduled to start out Could 12.
“Whereas an affordable jury might conclude that Eckhart consented to some or all of their sexual exercise, it might additionally conclude in any other case,” the decide wrote. “In her deposition, Eckhart testified at size that Henry pressured her to interact in sexual exercise with out her consent, and on three separate events.”
The decide cited three cases in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
Eckhart’s attorneys mentioned in an announcement, “We stay up for holding Mr. Henry accountable earlier than a jury, and intend to enchantment the choice because it pertains to Fox Information on the acceptable time.”
Eckhart mentioned in an announcement, “Whereas I’m grateful that the courtroom has acknowledged the necessity for a jury to listen to my claims towards my rapist Ed Henry, this battle is larger than me. It’s about altering a company tradition that continues to allow abuse, concern, intimidation and silence, which is why my authorized staff can be interesting the dismissal of my claims towards Fox Information. No company must be allowed to guard predators whereas punishing survivors who dared to talk up.”
An legal professional for Henry didn’t instantly return a request for remark.
As a part of his protection, Henry argued that Eckhart despatched sexually charged textual content messages earlier than and after the incidents. However the decide wrote that such questions must be left to a jury.
The decide wrote, “A jury could nicely discover that Eckhart’s textual content messages — a lot of which had been sexually express — belie her testimony that she didn’t pursue or consent to the sexual interactions she had with Henry. However that credibility inquiry falls squarely throughout the province of the jury, and the Courtroom could not wade into it at this stage.”
The decide added, “There isn’t a proof that refutes Eckhart’s assertion that the three sexual incidents had been nonconsensual. To make certain, she admits to sending sexual messages and images {that a} jury might interpret as inviting sexual relations with Henry. … However these messages may very well be learn in different methods too. An inexpensive jury might, for example, discover that Eckhart voluntarily despatched some messages to be pleasant, and even flirtatious, but didn’t consent to the violent sexual encounters that adopted.”
The decide additionally famous that the report included proof that Henry “harassed and even assaulted different feminine colleagues, together with one incident the place he digitally penetrated a lady beneath a desk with out her consent. An inexpensive jury might imagine these accounts and infer that Henry engaged in comparable misconduct with Eckhart.”
Fox Information terminated Henry on July 1, 2020, after a regulation agency’s investigation that discovered that Eckhart and Henry had engaged in communications between 2014 and 2017, and had the three sexual encounters. That included a September 2015 incident wherein Eckhart carried out oral intercourse on Henry within the Fox Information workplace.
Eckhart was fired from Fox Information in June 2020, in what the community mentioned was as a consequence of tardiness, disclosure of a proprietary graphics package deal and misappropriation of firm assets.
Eckhart claimed that Fox Information knew that Henry was harassing different girls on the community, one thing that ought to have warned executives that he may do the identical to her. However the decide wrote, that “no cheap jury might discover Fox Information liable based mostly on that proof. For starters, despite the fact that Fox Information ultimately discovered about Henry’s extramarital affairs, it didn’t find out about a lot of them till after Eckhart and Henry’s closing sexual encounter in 2017.”
