Former “Good Morning America” executive producer Michael Corn has been accused of sexual assault and fostering a toxic work environment in a lawsuit filed Wednesday by an ABC News staffer, reported the Wall Street Journal.
Kirstyn Crawford, who worked as a producer on the morning show, filed the suit in New York. It alleges that an inebriated Corn assaulted her in 2015 during a business trip to Los Angeles.
Corn was executive producer of “GMA” starting in 2014. He was executive producer of “World News Tonight” when Diane Sawyer was anchor before joining the morning news program. Corn was a member of the Office of the President of ABC News when he left the company in April.
Neither Corn nor ABC provided a reason for his exit, said the Wall Street Journal. In May, Corn joined Nexstar Media as the president of news, said Variety.
A Nexstar spokesman said, “We have no comment on anything that may or may not have happened prior to Mr. Corn’s employment with Nexstar.”
Crawford and Corn were covering the 2015 Academy Awards ceremony and took an Uber ride together back to their hotel after the event when he forcibly touched her, said the suit. His actions included “kissing her head and rubbing her legs, telling her he wanted to help her with her career,” according to the suit.
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Once at their hotel, Crawford brought Corn Advil to his room at his request and he allegedly asked her to sit on his bed. Crawford said she complied because she was afraid he would lash out at her. Corn then grabbed her arm, pulled her into his chest and began kissing the top of her head, according to the suit. Crawford said she was able to pull away after a few minutes and made it to her own room.
At the time, Corn was in a professional power position over Crawford.
Crawford is now a producer for “Good Morning America” co-anchor George Stephanopoulos. She is seeking unspecified damages, citing emotional and physical distress, among other fallout from the alleged incident with Corn.
In November 2017, Stephanopoulos became aware through a third party of the alleged assault, said the Wall Street Journal. He notified Tanya Menton, an ABC lawyer who handles litigation and employee relations; Derek Medina, a senior executive at “Good Morning America”; and Heather Riley, then a publicist for the program, according to the suit.
After a conversation with Riley, who told her reporting the assault and harassment might get “messy,” Crawford decided not to speak with Menton, according to the suit. Crawford feared a formal complaint could harm her career.
Under Disney’s policies an investigation should have been launched once executives were notified of the alleged incident, according to the suit.
Riley, who is now a vice president of crisis management communications and strategic initiatives for ABC News, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Nor did Menton or Medina. Stephanopoulos declined to comment.
Crawford’s suit also alleges that Jill McClain, a former ABC News producer, was also sexually assaulted by Corn when the two worked on the ABC show “World News Tonight” around a decade ago.
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Corn assaulted McClain on a red-eye flight in 2010, groping her and rubbing her vagina through her jeans, alleges the suit. McClain turned her body toward the window and pretended to fall asleep.
During a separate trip to London in 2011, an intoxicated Corn forced his way into her hotel room, pushed McClain onto a bed and “grabbed the top of McClain’s jumpsuit as well as her bra and pulled them both down,” before fondling her breasts, according to the suit. McClain pushed Corn off and yelled at him to leave. He did.
Though McClain didn’t file a complaint about the alleged she told Sawyer details of the alleged encounters. Sawyer told McClain that she should report the alleged incidents to ABC and alerted Menton, said the suit.
Sawyer didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, said the Wall Street Journal.
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Though McClain isn’t a plaintiff in the suit, she is supporting Ms. Crawford’s case, according to the complaint.
ABC – a unit of Walt Disney Co. – is named as a defendant in the suit, which alleges that company officials knew of Corn’s behavior since at least 2017 and failed to act until Crawford and McClain filed formal complaints this February.
The suit says several other women at ABC reported complaints about Corn, ranging from bullying to sexual harassment.
Representatives for ABC News and Disney didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment, said the Wall Street Journal.
Corn denied the allegations put forward in the suit in a statement.
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