Mandel Ngan/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Disgraced former Fox Information anchor Ed Henry’s movement to dismiss allegations that he violated New York’s so-called “revenge porn” statute in opposition to his sexual assault accuser was rejected by a federal choose this week.
U.S. District Choose Ronnie Abrams additionally dominated that ex-Fox affiliate producer Jennifer Eckhart's accusation of intercourse trafficking in opposition to Henry might proceed, although the choose did toss out a number of counts of retaliation in opposition to Henry for submitting salacious and “intimate” images of Eckhart on the general public docket.
Weeks after Henry was fired from Fox Information in July 2020, following a grievance of “willful sexual misconduct within the office,” Eckhart filed a brutal lawsuit alleging the veteran reporter raped her and “carried out sadistic acts on her with out her consent that left her injured, bruised and battered with bloody wrists.” Henry vehemently denied all claims.
Henry was later accused of “slut-shaming” Eckhart when his authorized group added 15 express images to a courtroom submitting that sought to dismiss the ex-Fox worker’s lawsuit, prompting Eckhart to file the “revenge porn” depend and extra retaliation prices. Henry’s authorized group, in the meantime, has maintained that submitting the pictures was a “affordable defensive measure” to fight Eckhart’s “inflammatory” allegations.
Final September, Abrams superior Eckhart’s lawsuit in opposition to each Henry and Fox Information, although Abrams did dismiss the intercourse trafficking, federal hostile work surroundings, and “aiding and abetting” counts in opposition to the community at the moment. Eckhart’s claims of retaliation and hostile work surroundings beneath New York state regulation in opposition to Fox Information survived.
“We stay dedicated to defending in opposition to the baseless allegations in opposition to Fox outlined in Jennifer Eckhart’s claims,” Fox Information Media wrote in an announcement final fall. “As we've beforehand said, upon first studying of Ms. Eckhart’s allegations in opposition to Ed Henry, Fox Information Media instantly commenced an intensive unbiased investigation and inside six days dismissed Mr. Henry for trigger. We look ahead to proving by the invention course of that FOX Information Media takes harassment allegations severely and acted appropriately.”
Whereas the choose stated in her ruling this week that Eckhart’s “revenge porn” allegation would transfer ahead, Abrams let Henry know that he might nonetheless doubtlessly use the pictures as a part of his protection as soon as the case goes to trial. She did inform Henry’s attorneys, nevertheless, that they need to search the courtroom’s permission earlier than submitting the images as proof.
“There isn't a doubt that the factual allegations within the grievance are inflammatory, and the Court docket acknowledges that Henry vehemently denies them,” she wrote. “He definitely has the fitting to defend himself publicly — and achieve this zealously. However the Court docket has not denied him of that proper. It has not, as an illustration, imposed a gag order, or held that the pictures could not correctly be thought of on the applicable time.”
In her grievance, Eckhart accused Henry of getting “groomed, psychologically manipulated and coerced” her right into a “intercourse slave” relationship. She moreover claimed that when she didn’t consensually comply with intercourse, the married host “sexually assaulted her on workplace property, and raped her at a lodge the place Fox Information steadily lodged its visiting staff.”
Whereas the “revenge porn” and intercourse trafficking prices in opposition to Henry will proceed, Abrams agreed to dismiss a few of the retaliation counts since on the time Henry publicized the images he was not an worker of Fox Information.
“Retaliation claims beneath each statutes are confined to the employment context, or on the very least, to conditions the place the events had an ‘ongoing financial relationship,’” the choose wrote. “On the time of the submitting of the pictures, there was no employment relationship — nor any ‘ongoing financial relationship’ —in any respect between Henry and Eckhart.”
Attorneys for Eckhart and Henry didn't instantly reply to requests for remark.
Henry, who now works for the Steve Bannon-affiliated fringe-right channel Actual America’s Voice, hasn’t had a lot luck within the courts of late.
This previous spring, his defamation lawsuit in opposition to NPR, CNN, and several other journalists at these shops was voluntarily dismissed “with prejudice”—which means he can’t refile the case in any respect. Henry had claimed CNN and NPR reporters’ “longstanding grudges in opposition to Fox Information and/or people related to the corporate” had clouded their reporting on his termination.
Moreover, his defamation lawsuit in opposition to Fox Information was tossed out simply final week, as a choose decided that Henry had did not show that any of his ex-employer’s allegations of sexual misconduct that led to his firing have been false.