Former Grammy Chief Neil Portnow Sued for Rape
variety.comJem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Neil Portnow, the former chairman and president of the Recording Academy, was sued on Wednesday by a woman who claimed he drugged and raped her in a New York hotel room in 2018, according to the New York Times.
The allegation had previously surfaced in 2020 as part of a blockbuster legal claim filed by Portnow’s successor, Deborah Dugan, after she was abruptly placed on leave and ultimately terminated after just eight months on the job; at the time Portnow called the allegations “ludicrous, and untrue.” The new suit, filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, accuses Portnow, who stepped down in 2019, of sexual battery, and accuses the academy — the nonprofit group behind the Grammys — of negligence.
Dugan’s claim also said the Recording Academy’s board was aware of the allegations. The suit does not name the woman, but it describes her as an instrumentalist from outside the United States who once performed at Carnegie Hall.
The court papers include redacted related correspondence the woman, who has not spoken of the incident publicly until now, exchanged with the academy in 2018. “Neil Portnow gives lip service to women as standing up,” said Jeffrey R.
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