Once the New York Mets found out about the lewd texts and images that Jared Porter had sent a female reporter in 2016, brought to light by an ESPN report, he was promptly fired from his position as the team's general manager. The Mets also fired Ryan Ellis , a hitting performance coordinator, in the wake of Porter's firing, but it seems as though the organization was made aware of his behavior long before 2021.
According to Brittany Ghiroli and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, three women who worked for or who had previously worked for the Mets came forward and complained about Ellis's behavior in 2018. Their complaints fell on the ears of Aubrey Wechsler, then the Mets employee relations manager, and though the alleged incidents were looked into, Ellis remained with the team until he was terminated on January 22.
One woman who spoke to Wechsler said that Ellis had told her that 'I stare at your ass all the time' among other disturbing, inappropriate quotes. His behavior was perceived to be friendly, at first, until he made the above comments when she drove him to his hotel after a night at a bar. As he exited the car, he told her not to use his words against him. She recorded his remarks in a journal that she kept at the time.
A second woman had a brief sexual relationship with Ellis, but that he continued to send her "persistent, unwanted text messages" months after she ended their relationship, and she says she told Wechsler about those messages. A third woman told her supervisor about sexually suggestive comments from Ellis, including calls in the evening in which he'd ask if her boyfriend was home. This information was also brought to the attention of Wechsler.
Regarding how the organization dealt with these three allegations when they were brought to the Mets' attention in 2018, they said: "In July 2018, a complaint regarding inappropriate conduct by a Mets employee was brought to the attention of Mets management at that time. The organization initiated an investigation and, as a result, the employee was disciplined, put into a probationary status, and ordered into counseling. We had not received previous or subsequent complaints about this employee."
Wechsler, now the Mets' director of employee engagement, was asked if she wished to comment for the story, to which the club passed along a statement saying: "We believe the complaints were investigated properly by our HR personnel and in accordance with our reporting procedures at that time."
The woman who kept a journal says that she never heard from anyone in the organization after speaking with Wechsler. Another one of the women heard back from Wechsler soon after she reported the incidents, but was told that the investigation was complete and nothing more. The other woman said that the first time she heard from the Mets regarding her allegations was last month, when they had received the "new information" that led to Ellis's firing.
The Mets investigated Mickey Callaway at the same time as they investigated Ellis, according to Ghiroli and Rosenthal, though he stayed with the team until the end of that season.
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