Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan is speaking up after being placed on administrative leave by Board of Trustees of the Academy last week Thursday, January 16.
In the complaint filed by Dugan with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the ousted CEO accuses the Academy of crimes in sexual harassment, gender discrimination, unlawful retaliation and unequal pay among others.
In one of the alarming complaints, Dugan asserts that nomination process of the Grammy awards is not treated fairly by the selection committee. She says the secret committee which chooses Grammy nominees represent or have relationships with some nominated artists. The board also manipulates the nomination process to ensure that certain songs or albums are nominated when the producer of the Grammys, Ken Ehrlich wants a particular song performed.
With the case of sexual harassment, Dugan affirms that she once told HR she had been sexually harassed by music lawyer Joel Katz, who is also the Academy’s general counsel and former board member. She also accuses former CEO Neil Portnow of raping a recording artist, of which her knowing the truth and making attempt to tell after rejecting the demand to employ the former CEO as a consultant and pay him $750,000 led to her cover-up leave story by the Academy. It is said by her that Portnow’s executive assistant forged the complaints against her to cause her dismissal.
Meanwhile Katz’s lawyer Howard Weitzman has reportedly issued a statement that his client “emphatically denies” the allegation and will “corporate in any and all investigations or lawsuits by telling the absolute and whole truth.” Portnow on the other hand is yet to respond to the allegation.
Douglas Wigdor, one of Dugan’s attorneys and lawyer to 20 women accusing Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct took to Twitter to express his opinion about the developing case, “The complaint that we filed today against the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (the Grammys) highlights tactics reminiscent of those deployed by individuals defending Harvey Weinstein. As we allege, the attempt by the Recording Academy to impugn the character of Deborah Dugan is a transparent effort to shift the focus away from its own unlawful activity. This blatant form of retaliation in corporate America is all too common, even post #MeToo, and we will utilize all lawful means necessary to ensure that those responsible are held accountable for their actions.”
The Recording Academy has responded by reiterating its previous claims against Dugan. “It is curious that Ms. Dugan never raised these grave allegations until a week after legal claims were made against her personally by a female employee who alleged Ms. Dugan had created a ‘toxic and intolerable’ work environment and engaged in ‘abusive and bullying conduct,’” it reads. “When Ms. Dugan did raise her “concerns” to HR, she specifically instructed HR “not to take any action” in response.
“Nonetheless, we immediately launched independent investigations to review both Ms. Dugan’s potential misconduct and her subsequent allegations. Both of these investigations remain ongoing. Ms. Dugan was placed on administrative leave only after offering to step down and demanding $22 million from the Academy, which is a not-for-profit organization. Our loyalty will always be to the 25,000 members of the recording industry. We regret that Music’s Biggest Night is being stolen from them by Ms. Dugan’s actions and we are working to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.”
