Fox News Must Face Sexual Assault Case After Ex-Worker Claims Producer Lured Him to 'Career-Benefiting' Drinks

Fox News will reportedly continue to fight in court after an ex-staff member claimed that a producer sexually assaulted him by baiting him with career benefits.

Per Radar Online, U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres ruled that Fox can't escape liability for the case under the New York City Human Rights Law.

A jury would have to first determine whether the accused, Justin Wells, exercised enough authority over the alleged victim, Andrew Delancey, at the company to make the network responsible for the alleged sexual assault.

Per the court documents obtained by the publication, Delancey worked for the network between 2008 and 2010 as a regional producer for Fox News Edge.

Wells, on the other hand, was a producer on the network’s On the Record with Greta Van Susteren segment.

The alleged victim testified in court that Wells would often bypass the company’s assignment desk and assign work to him directly, at least a couple of times a week.

According to him, those assignments were time-sensitive, requiring quick turnaround and would often result in him having to ignore all his other duties.

He alleged that the sexual assault happened in October 2008.

He had been working at Fox for about a month at that time, and Wells continued exercising similar unprofessional conduct during work hours.

Per Delancey, the accused invited him for drinks at Barracuda Lounge in Chelsea one evening along with other employees from the company.

Wells apparently convinced him to go by telling him it would be “a good thing” to get acquainted with his colleagues better through such a gathering and could “benefit” him in the long run.

The alleged victim claimed that things started going south when his superior invited him for a drink at his apartment before the group outing began.

According to the alleged victim’s testimony, once he entered Wells’ apartment, the producer threw him on a bed and kissed him.

When he tried to flee the scene, he was again grabbed near the building’s rooftop, where Wells allegedly tried to pull his pants down and again tried to kiss him.

Delancey recounted that he made it clear to Wells that he was not at all interested.

According to him, the producer’s entire demeanor rapidly changed at that point, and the scheduled group outing was abruptly canceled.

Wells claimed during his deposition that his memories of the night were blurry and he did not remember the alleged misconduct.

The judge presiding over the case also emphasized that the allegations put forth were mostly being recounted from the evidence on record that the alleged victim filed and were not factual findings.

Delancey claimed that he talked to a coworker about what had occurred the next day, claiming that he was sexually assaulted by someone “higher up” at Fox.

However, he did not escalate the matter to human resources or his immediate manager as he feared being labelled a “problem.”

He also claimed that his manager repeatedly tried to prevent him from reporting the incident to HR.

The alleged victim further stated during his testimony that his career took a sharp turn after the alleged incident and opportunities “dried up” for him.

He also noted that he observed a “chill over” at the network when it came to his work afterwards.

However, he acknowledged that he was later promoted and received two modest pay increases during his time at the network.

Delancey ultimately decided to resign from his job in 2010.

Meanwhile, Fox argued that the alleged incident occurred on an off-day outside of the company’s premises.

As a result, the network should not be held responsible for any and all wrongdoings should the accused be found guilty.