Last week, The New York Times reported that former top ABC executive, Good Morning America producer Michael Corn, had been accused of a sexual assault that the victim alleges occurred on a work trip in 2015.
Kirstyn Crawford said in the lawsuit that Mr. Corn sexually assaulted her in 2015 during a work trip to Los Angeles to cover the Academy Awards. Mr. Corn denied the allegations in a statement on Wednesday.
In the suit, which was filed in New York State court, Ms. Crawford said Mr. Corn had assaulted her during an Uber ride and in a hotel. The assaults traumatized Ms. Crawford, a producer for George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America,” and caused her career to stall, according to the complaint.
The Times also reported that ABC is specifically named in the lawsuit, alleging that top executives at the Disney-owned news network “knew or should have known that Corn had a propensity to sexually harass female colleagues and that he perpetuated a hostile work environment at ABC.”
Now, Deadline has confirmed that The Walt Disney Company unsuccessfully attempted to resolve the sexual assault case in mediation in order to keep the situation out of court:
…[the mediation talks] were held in June [2021] but unsuccessful, and a source familiar with the situation confirmed the proceedings. Generally, mediation is held as a way to resolve legal claims outside the courts, typically with a retired judge presiding.
Credit: ABC News
At this time neither Disney nor ABC has publicly commented on Ms. Crawford’s allegations. However, a new GMA executive producer, Simone Swink, was named yesterday, August 29, 2021, following Corn’s abrupt exit in April 2021.
Furthermore, another report indicates that the “bombshell” lawsuit against Corn has GMA hosts George Stephanopolous and Robin Roberts at “each other’s throats”.
Stay tuned to Inside the Magic for more on this developing story.
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Credit: ABC News
