Former CBS News
producer Dick Jefferson, who was the victim of a
gay-bashing attack in St. Martin last year, was set to file
a $50 million sexual orientation discrimination
lawsuit against his former employer Monday, according
to the law offices of Neil Brickman.
According to the
30-page complaint to be filed with the New York State
supreme court, Jefferson alleges that CBS executives
required him to ask permission before testifying in
open court against his attackers and also prevented
him from contacting Ryan Smith, a coworker at CBS who was
also injured in the April 2006 attack on the Caribbean
island.
After
recuperating from the assault, in which a man attacked
Jefferson with a tire wrench, Jefferson claims that
CBS News senior vice president Linda Mason began
issuing a series of orders to control his public
comments about the incident. Jefferson says senior CBS News
executives had decided that the assault was too
"controversial" because of its
"sensitive nature."
Jefferson also
says that Mason censored a personal e-mail of his to the
media, insisting that he remove the sentence "I
certainly did not choose to be beaten within a
millimeter of my life just to be gay" because it
was too controversial. Jefferson claims that when he
questioned Mason's actions based on the
network's antidiscrimination policies, she retaliated
so thoroughly that it eventually led to his termination on
November 20, 2006.
"The judge
in St. Martin went out of his way to say my
attackers--strangers I didn't even
know--were driven by discrimination and contempt
for other people, found them guilty, and sentenced them to
prison," Jefferson said in a press release.
"Turns out my bosses--friends I had known
for years--had more contempt and did more damage.
I'm sure a New York jury will be just as wise
as that St. Martin judge."
In response, CBS
released a statement to the blog Fishbowl NY, claiming
that Jefferson's lawsuit plan is an "unwarranted
complaint and [a] regrettably vicious and
unconscionable attack on Ms. Mason's character"
while also touting the "tens of thousands of dollars
paid for by [CBS]" to airlift Jefferson out of
St. Martin and get him medical treatment. (The
Advocate)
