UPDATED, with remark from Eckhart: A federal decide dismissed Fox Information from a sexual assault lawsuit {that a} former worker filed in opposition to former anchor Ed Henry.
U.S. District Choose 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 the direction of her till she first reported it to the community by way of her counsel on June 25, 2020—three years after their final sexual encounter,” the decide wrote. “As soon as the community lastly realized of his habits, its response was the alternative of forgiveness: it swiftly investigated and terminated him simply six days later.”
Learn the decide’s dismissal of Fox Information from Ed Henry lawsuit.
Henry, who now works at Newsmax, has claimed that the sexual relations with Eckhart have been consensual.
The decide additionally dismissed a revenge porn declare in opposition to Henry, however denied his movement to toss claims of gender-motivated violence, assault, battery, intercourse trafficking and harassment. A trial is scheduled to begin Could 12.
“Whereas an inexpensive 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 have interaction in sexual exercise with out her consent, and on three separate events.”
The decide cited three situations 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 attraction 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 in opposition to my rapist Ed Henry, this combat is greater than me. It’s about altering a company tradition that continues to allow abuse, worry, intimidation and silence, which is why my authorized crew shall be interesting the dismissal of my claims in opposition to Fox Information. No company ought to 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 ought to be left to a jury.
The decide wrote, “A jury could nicely discover that Eckhart’s textual content messages—a lot of which have 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 Court docket 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 have 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 might be learn in different methods too. An affordable jury might, as an 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 below a desk with out her consent. An affordable 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 legislation 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 during which 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 result of tardiness, disclosure of a proprietary graphics bundle and misappropriation of firm sources.
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 would possibly do the identical to her. However the decide wrote, that “no affordable jury might discover Fox Information liable based mostly on that proof. For starters, regardless that Fox Information finally realized about Henry’s extramarital affairs, it didn’t learn about a lot of them till after Eckhart and Henry’s remaining sexual encounter in 2017.”
