The details of ex-ESPN host Adrienne Lawrence's lawsuit against the WorldWide Leader were first surfaced in December, when the Boston Globe reported her sexual harassment claim against John Buccigross. In response, ESPN released pages of text messages between the two parties, in an apparent attempt to discredit Lawrence's accusations. While many of the messages were flirtatious, the interest seemed to be mutual.
As it turns out, the Buccigross accusations might be some of the least explosive material in the suit. Though Lawrence's complaint was lodged last summer, the lawsuit was filed in Connecticut district Sunday. In it, Lawrence, who worked at the network in 2015 as part of a fellowship to increase racial diversity, says ESPN is rife with misogyny, accusing male executives and talent of keeping "scoreboards naming female colleagues they are targeting for sex," per the New York Post. It also claims men openly watched porn at their desks and made sexually lewd comments in Lawrence's presence.
The lawsuit also cites a specific alleged incident involving iconic anchor Chris Berman. Lawrence says Berman left a "threatening" and "racially disparaging" voicemail on Jemele Hill's office line in early 2016, which prompted Hill to notify ESPN executive Marcia Keegan –– who was in charge of Hill's show, "His & Hers." Lawrence writes no further action against Berman was taken, according to TMZ.
This isn't the first time Berman has been accused of workplace misconduct. In 2015, ESPN settled a sexual harassment lawsuit targeting Berman from a former makeup artist. Berman moved into an emeritus role at the company in 2017.
Update (7:13 p.m.): Hill denied the allegations against Berman, tweeting this statement on Monday night:
Re: Chris Berman pic.twitter.com/p7NqjHiV7r
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) March 6, 2018"And, as always, I write my own statements and no one has ever forced me to put out anything," she wrote in a follow-up tweet.
ESPN issued a statement Monday night as well:
"We conducted a thorough investigation of the claims Adrienne Lawrence surfaced to ESPN and they are entirely without merit. Ms. Lawrence was hired into a two-year talent development program and was told that her contract would not be renewed at the conclusion of the training program. At that same time, ESPN also told 100 other talent with substantially more experience, that their contracts would not be renewed. The company will vigorously defend its position and we are confident we will prevail in court."
