On Monday night, the Boston Globe reported that former ESPN employee, Adrienne Lawrence, had filed a lawsuit in Connecticut U.S. District Court alleging that she was a victim of sexual discrimination and harassment.
In the suit, there are numerous allegations outlined, including ones involving current Raw announcer Jonathan Coachman. The following was listed in Sections 125 and 126 of the suit:
On or around January 18, 2016, SportsCenter anchor Jonathan Coachman (âCoachmanâ) emailed Ms. Lawrence offering to provide her with mentorship and providing his cellphone number. When he contacted her via text, he quickly turned a professional conversation into a personal matter, asking her about her musical interests. He was employing the ESPN predatorsâ playbook. Colleagues then cautioned Ms. Lawrence that Coachman was notorious for sexually harassing female employees. After learning that, Ms. Lawrence made an effort to communicate to Coachman that she had a boyfriend, after which she did not hear from him again and he made no offers of mentorship.
Coachmanâs reputation for making unwelcome sexual advances to ward women and engaging in other sexually harassing behavior was not a secret. Cary Chow had warned Ms. Lawrence about him when he gave the short list of men at ESPN who were notorious for sexual harassment. Coachman had sent Walsh inappropriate photos of himself and text messages, falsely telling her colleagues that they were romantically involved and that she âwantedâ him â another common practice of men at ESPN.
On Tuesday morning, Jonathan Coachman vehemently denied these allegations with a series of statements posted on Twitter:
I will address this only once because I am seething today. In 21 years of being a PROFESSIONAL I have never been more offended in my life. I my 9 years I can count on one hand the amount of times I interacted with anyone other than a co-anchor. To allow someone to spread vicious. Lies and flat out fabrications is not ok and itâs time someone stood up for themselves. @jemelehill addressed her lie last night. I am not a part of this lawsuit because I have never done anything wrong. My reputation speaks for itself and anyone that has ever worked with me will back that up. I am also offended that someone can dangerously throw peoples names into something for the clear attempt at getting headlines. This the only time I will address this because I am not a part of this lawsuit. My heart goes out to anyone falsely accused of anything. Trust me it doesnât feel good. But most of you have been incredible and supportive. Onward and upward.
POST Wrestling reached out to both Coachman the WWE on Monday for a statement or response to the story. The WWE issued us the following statement: We take these matters very seriously and are investigating.
Hang on there fella, hold your misogynistic horses.
He offered her mentorship. He quickly turned his offer of professional guidance into a more personal friendship. She declined to start a personal relationship. Suddenly, Coach no longer contacts her in regards to helping her career.
Now, if the story is true, we come to one of two conclusions; the first is that Coach had no real intention of mentoring the woman, he was just after a more personal arrangement. The second conclusion, and the more sinister, is that Coach was going to use his position of power to offer opportunities and guidance in exchange for more a personal relationship.
Obviously, that is only if the accusations are true and why the allegations are potentially very serious.
As I said, it itâs true then itâs pretty damning. And those are pretty easy assumptions to make.
Put yourself in the accuserâs shoes; if someone offered to mentor you through a career path, but then they stopped any notion of wanting to help after you had made it clear that you were only after a professional relationship, wouldnât you feel somewhat harassed, empty and helpless?
Empty and helpless? Iâd hope Iâd get more credit than that tbh. Women are not helpless.
But I have a solution if they are as victimized and helpless as suggested. Zero small talk in the work place, no more bantering in offices and no one contacts anyone after work hoursâŚthere I solved it.
Women canât do the same either. We have to be fair and balanced after all. Matter of fact, zero contact between all employees and everything is strictly in written form. Then at least you have something measurably to investigate if such incidents and allegations occur.
I donât think you understand the situation. This isnât about small talk or making friends in the office. This is someone who, according to the accuser, withdrew any mentorship or career help purely based on not being able to have a personal relationship with that person.
Situation is more like someone being lamented a creep for asking someone what theyâre musical taste is.
Lot of assumptions being made here, another could be "he asked someone what music they like, being told âI gotta boyfriendâ and running from someone who makes conclusions like that.
If youâre boss said to you, âHey sport, I can take you placesâ
And you replied, âAh great!â
âSo kiddo, whatâs your fave movies?â
âIâd rather we keep this professional, sirâ
silence Oh look, that offer of mentoship has gone and people have similar tales of him where he eventually started advancing sexually on other employees. You wouldnât question that?
Iâve done something similar and the other person has respected my wishes and they still helped where they said they would. Anyone who canât understand that should be the one to âget over themselvesâ.
No. Offering someone a helping hand and then shunning them because they only want a professional relationship is awful practice and would make me think either âHuh, that was creepyâ or âHuh, that person is an egotistical, manipulative bratâ.
Please point out where I said I 100% believed these accusations. Go on sweetheart.
Iâm offended by your use of âsweetheartâ first offâŚhow dare you try marginalize my character with such misogynistic terms demeaning my character like thatâŚI feel like I earned an apology over such a demeaning term.
Secondly. âŚyouâre the one who threw out the scenarios and assumptions even when given the berman story being debunked by the alleged victim of said actâŚsure sounds like letting the story get in the way of facts and judging a case before the evidence is givenâŚhearsay is thrown out of courtâŚopinion isnât supposed to be a factor in court.
Sounds like a Lynch mob to meâŚCircle the wagons.