August 30, 2019

USA: CNN Don Lemon Sued By Bartender In The Hampton's For Alleged Assault. The CNN Host Vigorously Rubbed His Genitalia, Shoved His Fingers In His Face And Asked “Do You Like Pussy Or Dick?"

Mediaite.com
written by Aidan McLaughlin
Tuesday August 13, 2019

A man is suing Don Lemon, claiming the CNN host attacked him at a Hamptons bar last summer. The suit, obtained by Mediaite, was filed Sunday and seeks unspecified damages for “emotional pain and suffering.”

“The plaintiff in this lawsuit has previously displayed a pattern of contempt for CNN on his social media accounts,” a CNN spokesperson told Mediaite in a statement. “This claim follows his unsuccessful threats and demands for an exorbitant amount of money from Don Lemon. Don categorically denies these claims and this matter does not merit any further comment at this time.”

Dustin Hice claims that Lemon attacked him at Sag Harbor dive bar Murf’s in July 2018. Hice, who was working as a bartender at another Hamptons watering hole at the time, said he approached Lemon at the bar one night after recognizing him. Hice “tried to get Mr. Lemon’s attention and offered to buy Mr. Lemon a drink,” the suit claims. The CNN host declined, stating he was “just trying to have a good time.”

Later in the night, the suit says, Lemon approached Hice.

“Mr. Lemon, who was wearing a pair of shorts, sandals, and a t-shirt, put his hand down the front of his own shorts, and vigorously rubbed his genitalia, removed his hand and shoved his index and middle fingers in Plaintiff’s moustache and under Plaintiff’s nose,” the suit says.

Hice said Lemon repeatedly shoved his fingers in his face and asked, “Do you like pussy or dick?” Hice claims he left the bar “shocked and humiliated.”

As for CNN’s claim that Hice’s social media accounts displayed contempt for the network, a Twitter account under the name Dustin Hice has been deleted. An Instagram post from January 2017 purportedly posted by Hice — and obtained by Mediaite — showed him posing in front of CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta along with the caption: “touring the #CNN center today…or as #Trump would say ‘the home of Fake News’ lol.”

In a statement to Mediaite, Hice’s attorney pushed back on CNN’s claims about Hice’s social media posts:
“The assertion that Mr. Hice would put himself through the painful process of filing a sexual assault lawsuit against his attacker all because he doesn’t like a cable TV station is ludicrous. Rather, he took down his social media accounts on the day he filed the lawsuit against Don Lemon because he’s a private citizen and wants to protect himself from CNN’s heavy-handed tactics.”
A source close to Lemon told Mediaite that Hice demanded $1.5 million from the CNN host in exchange for not filing the suit. Lemon refused, the source said, claiming he had done nothing wrong.

The alleged attack, the suit claims, left Hice with “feelings of shame, humiliation, anxiety, anger, and guilt,” and affected his work in the Hamptons. He said word of the alleged attack spread around the area, and led to locals humiliating him at the bar he worked at. Hice, who is represented by New York law firm Nesenoff & Miltenberg, is seeking unspecified damages for emotional pain and loss of earnings.
The Washington Examiner
written by Ellie Bufkin
Tuesday August 13, 2019

A lawsuit filed in Suffolk County, New York, claims that CNN host Don Lemon inflicted "emotional pain and suffering" on a man during a July 2018 incident.

The lawsuit details last summer's incident by alleging that after placing his hands down his own pants and "vigorously rubbing his genitalia," Lemon "intensely pushed his fingers against Plaintiff’s face under Plaintiff’s nose, forcing Plaintiff’s head to thrust backward." He allegedly further harassed the man, Dustin Hice, with aggressive sexual questions.

A statement issued by CNN denies the claims and says Hice had a history of antagonizing CNN and its employees on social media. "The plaintiff in this lawsuit has previously displayed a pattern of contempt for CNN on his social media accounts,” a representative for CNN said to Mediaite. “This claim follows his unsuccessful threats and demands for an exorbitant amount of money from Don Lemon. Don categorically denies these claims and this matter does not merit any further comment at this time."

New York law firm Nesenoff & Miltenberg, which is representing Hice, claims its client suffered "feelings of shame, humiliation, anxiety, anger, and guilt." They are seeking unspecified damages from Lemon.

"When the cameras are turned off … Mr. Lemon’s actions are in stark and disturbing contrast to the public persona he attempts to portray," reads the suit.

The story comes a day after CNN host Chris Cuomo used threatening language against a Trump supporter who called him "Fredo" at a New York bar. Cuomo, who was with his family, became angry and suggested to the man, "I'll f--king ruin your shit," further threatening the man that he would "f--king throw you down these stairs like a f--king punk."

Read the complaint below:

New York Post
written by Kate Sheehy
Tuesday August 13, 2019

He’s soured on Lemon.

A former Hamptons bartender says in a new lawsuit that Don Lemon assaulted him after the CNN host disgustingly fondled himself at a local watering hole.

Dustin Hice says in his Suffolk County Supreme Court suit that he was slinging drinks in July 2018 for The Old Stove Pub in Sagaponack when he and his coworkers decided to go out for drinks after work one night.

The group headed to Murf’s Backstreet Tavern in Sag Harbor, where Hice told The Post, “I see out of the corner of my eye, it’s Don Lemon’’ there, too.

“I had had two beers, maybe three at the most,’’ Hice recalled. “I said, ‘Hey, Don, let me buy you a drink.’ I turned to Nick the bartender and said, ‘Hey, Nick, let me get two [vodka] Lemon Drops’ and put two fingers in the air.

“Don was sitting with two or three other people, and he looks at me and goes, ‘I’m just trying to have a good time, man.’ I said, ‘Oh, OK, sorry,’ and that was it,’’ Hice said.

“I absolutely wasn’t hitting on him whatsoever,’’ Hice said of Lemon, 53, who is gay and married. “I’m a heterosexual male.”

As alleged in his complaint, Hice, 38, told The Post, “About 5 or 10 minutes later, Don gets up, walks around the bar, comes up right up to me and puts his hands down his board shorts. He rubs himself aggressively, his penis and whatever else down there.”

Lemon then “shoved his index and middle fingers in Plaintiff’s mustache and under Plaintiff’s nose,’’ according to Hice’s suit, which was filed over the weekend.

“And he goes, ‘Do you like p—y or d–k?’ And he kept saying, ‘P or D? P or D?’ He said it three or four times. I’m like, ‘Whoa man, what the hell?’ ” Hice claimed.

The accuser said he was so traumatized that he fled the bar and came back a couple minutes later to find Lemon gone.

“I had to go into work the next day, and by then, people all across town knew it,’’ Hice told The Post. “It spread like wildfire. And I had people coming in that week and ordering Lemon Drops and being like, ‘Give me two,’ ” infuriating and humiliating him, he said.

Hice says in his suit that he suffered “severe emotional stress and loss of future earnings and opportunities’’ and is suing for unspecified damages.

CNN responded in a statement: “The plaintiff in this lawsuit has previously displayed a pattern of contempt for CNN on his social media accounts. This claim follows his unsuccessful threats and demands for an exorbitant amount of money from Don Lemon.

“Don categorically denies these claims and this matter does not merit any further comment at this time.”

A source close to Lemon said Hice’s camp contacted Lemon’s lawyers and demanded $1.5 million in exchange for not filing the suit, the source said. Lemon refused the demand because he did nothing wrong, the source said.

A Hice source said there were talks about a financial settlement and that Lemon’s side offered “six figures,” but in the end, the potential deal never materialized.

CNN didn’t comment on the “six-figure” claim.

As for social-media attacks on CNN, Hice said, “I have never ever ranted about anyone, especially a news station. … I am a private, religious man.’’

Hice’s suit calls Lemon “an Emmy Award winning news anchor … who among other things, purports to be a staunch advocate for the ‘Me Too’ movement.” But “when the cameras are turned off … Mr. Lemon’s actions are in stark and disturbing contrast to the public persona he attempts to portray,’’ the suit says.

Hice’s lawyer, Andrew Miltenberg, said, “Just because my client is a straight man doesn’t make this assault any more acceptable than if he were a woman.

“This lawsuit is sending a message loud and clear — if you are in a position of power, you cannot get away with sexual assault. No matter what the circumstances are.”
Fox News
written by Brian Flood
Thursday August 15, 2019

The former boss of a bartender who earlier this week filed an explosive lawsuit against CNN host Don Lemon, accusing the newsman of a strange, sexually charged assault, told Fox News he witnessed the incident and corroborated his onetime employee's claim.

In an exclusive interview, George Gounelas, who managed Dustin Hice at the Old Stove Pub in July of 2018, detailed what allegedly occurred on the night of the bizarre encounter at Murf’s Backstreet Tavern, which is located in the prestigious Hamptons area east of New York City. Gounelas is named in the suit filed by Hice.

Lemon, through CNN, has vehemently denied Hice's allegations.

“Dustin worked for me as a bartender [and] we went out after work one night. We were standing there and he said, ‘Hey, that’s Don Lemon,’” Gounelas said. “Murf’s is a place you go to drink after you’ve been out drinking. We had just gotten off of work. So that’s why we ended up there, because we worked in the restaurant business. So by the time everything is done, we can only hit a late-night spot.”

Hice approached Lemon to strike up a conversation but the newsman declined, according to Gounelas, who said he and Hice then offered to buy Lemon a drink, which the CNN host also declined.

Gounelas said that a few moments later, Lemon came up to them.

“Don Lemon has now come around the corner and is standing face to face with us. There is a beam, a pole, in the place. Don’s standing up against the pole, face to face with Dustin, I turn around and I’m standing right there between the two of them,” Gounelas said. “He’s saying, ‘So you like me? Is that why you’re bothering me?’”

Hice responded, “Nah, man, I just wanted to say, 'What’s up?’” according to Gounelas.

Gounelas told Fox News he couldn’t recall what Lemon said verbatim, but it was “along the lines of, 'Do you like me? Is that why you’re bothering me, because you wanna f--- me?'”

Gounelas said Lemon appeared “pretty drunk” when he confronted the duo at the wee-hours watering hole.

“He put his hands down his pants, inside his board shorts, grabbed his [genitals], and then came out with two fingers and, like, clipped Dustin’s nose up and down with two fingers asking ‘do you like p---- or d---?’” Gounelas said.

Gounelas said he laughed during the alleged incident and immediately mocked Hice as “gross” because of Lemon’s alleged actions – but Hice didn’t think it was a laughing matter.

“Dustin was in this shock mode saying, ‘Bro, did that just happen? That was disgusting,’” Gounelas said before explaining that he didn’t think it was too unusual at the time. “The whole thing is like, I go out in the Hamptons, I live out here, I have a restaurant, I get it, people get crazy. To me, it was just another thing. To [Dustin], he was like shocked.”

Gounelas said he isn’t sure if Lemon, who is openly gay, was being confrontational or simply flirting.

“I guess it’s a little of both. If someone had done that to me, I probably would have punched him. But I think it might have been flirting. I think Dustin was more in shock… If someone was flirting with me like that I’d say, ‘alright man I’m not gay,’” Gounelas said. “I wouldn’t go up to a girl like that. It could be his way of flirting.”

Hice continued to work for Gounelas at the now-shuttered Old Stove Pub for the duration of the summer, where his former boss said the bartender was regularly teased about the incident.

“As his boss, I was kind of making fun. I feel bad now,” Gounelas said.

Gounelas told Fox News that the incident allegedly happened in the presence of others and he’s seen Lemon in Murf’s Backstreet Tavern on other occasions.

“The place was packed. I’m sure other people saw. It was a known thing in the Hamptons, not like this quiet thing. Everybody knew Dustin and what happened to him,” Gounelas said. “Every time we went out, every bartender offered him a Lemon drop shot, making fun of him. He got some sh-t for it.”

Multiple attempts to contact Murf’s Backstreet Tavern management by Fox News have gone unanswered.

Gounelas said Hice was “a little messed up” from the alleged incident.

“This is the only thing he could talk about, not in a good way, like ‘I can’t believe that sh-t happened,’” Gounelas said.

Murf’s Backstreet Tavern is located in Sag Harbor, a part of the Hamptons where New York’s wealthiest residents have multi-million dollar weekend homes. Lemon apparently hosted a star-filled bash at his Sag Harbor home only two months before the alleged incident occurred.

In May 2018, a former aide to Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic Governor of New York and brother of fellow CNN host Chris Cuomo, tweeted -- and then deleted – a photo of herself with Lemon and now-disgraced lawyer Michael Avenatti, who was a regular CNN guest at the time.
Don Lemon threw a “Sag Harbor soiree” weeks before he allegedly assaulted Dustin Hice at a Sag Harbor bar, according to Juanita Scarlett.
The former Andrew Cuomo aide, Juanita Scarlett, wrote that she was at “the Sag Harbor soiree” of her “second favorite on-air journalist,” with a photo that included her husband, New York Daily News columnist Errol Louis, CNN contributor Margaret Hoover, Avenatti and Lemon.

Hice’s lawsuit against Lemon, first reported by Mediaite, was filed Aug. 11 in Suffolk County Court. In the suit, Hice also said Lemon's off-screen demeanor was in stark contrast to the "Me Too" advocate whom he often saw on TV.

"When the cameras are turned off, however, Mr. Lemon’s actions are in stark and disturbing contrast to the public persona he attempts to convey," the suit reads.

Lemon offered a six-figure settlement before talks broke down and Hice filed the formal complaint, according to a source close to Hice's attorney.

CNN denied Hice's account and said Hice seemed to have animosity toward the cable news network.

"The plaintiff in this lawsuit has previously displayed a pattern of contempt for CNN on his social media accounts," a CNN spokesperson told Fox News in a statement. "This claim follows his unsuccessful threats and demands for an exorbitant amount of money from Don Lemon.

“Don categorically denies these claims and this matter does not merit any further comment at this time," the CNN spokesperson added.

CNN did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.
The Washington Examiner
written by Ellie Bufkin
Friday August 16, 2019

An accusation of assault against CNN host Don Lemon in the Hamptons last summer has been corroborated by a second man.

Lemon was accused by Dustin Hice, who worked as a bartender at the time, of grabbing his own genitals and making sexually explicit comments to him. Hice filed suit against Lemon last week seeking unspecified damages resulting from the encounter.

"He put his hands down his pants, inside his board shorts, grabbed his [genitals]," George Gounelas, Hice's former boss who claims to have seen the whole encounter, told Fox News on Thursday. "[Lemon] then came out with two fingers and, like, clipped Dustin’s nose up and down with two fingers asking, ‘Do you like p---y or d--k?’”

He continued describing the July 2018 evening in question, saying, "Dustin worked for me as a bartender [and] we went out after work one night. We were standing there, and he said, ‘Hey, that’s Don Lemon.' Murf’s is a place you go to drink after you’ve been out drinking. We had just gotten off of work. So that’s why we ended up there, because we worked in the restaurant business. So by the time everything is done, we can only hit a late-night spot."

Gounelas recounted that Hice recognized Lemon at the bar and approached him to say "what's up?" and to offer to buy the CNN newsman a drink. Gounelas said that Lemon declined to chat with Hice and rejected the offer of a drink. He assumed that would be the end of the interaction, but Lemon reappeared a short time later.

"Don Lemon has now come around the corner and is standing face to face with us," said Gounelas, who also described Lemon as likely intoxicated. "There is a beam, a pole, in the place. Don’s standing up against the pole, face to face with Dustin, I turn around and I’m standing right there between the two of them. He’s saying, 'So you like me? Is that why you’re bothering me?'"

It was at the moment, Gounelas asserted, that Lemon assaulted Hice.

"As his boss, I was kind of making fun. I feel bad now," Gounelas said. "The place was packed. I’m sure other people saw. It was a known thing in the Hamptons, not like this quiet thing. Everybody knew Dustin and what happened to him. Every time we went out, every bartender offered him a lemon drop shot, making fun of him. He got some s--t for it."

CNN has firmly denied that Lemon was involved in the alleged incident and said that Hice has a history of antagonizing the cable news network.

"The plaintiff in this lawsuit has previously displayed a pattern of contempt for CNN on his social media accounts,” a representative for CNN said. "This claim follows his unsuccessful threats and demands for an exorbitant amount of money from Don Lemon. Don categorically denies these claims and this matter does not merit any further comment at this time."

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 1:38 AM

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