Neil Portnow, the former chairman and president of the Recording Academy faces civil legal claims that he raped drugged and raped his successor.
Deborah Dugan has filed a sexual abuse lawsuit against Portnow for allegedly drugging and raping a woman in a New York hotel room in 2018. 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 and its allegations are providing new scrutiny to Portnow’s statement that women in the music industry need to “step up” in order to succeed in the business.
In the suit, the plaintiff claims she met Portnow at a Recording Academy event in January 2018, when the most recent year that Grammys were held in New York. She says invited her to the ceremony, and later told her he would return to New York in the spring. The two met at his hotel that June.
Portnow greeted her in the lobby and brought her to his room, the suit continues, where he gave her Grammy memorabilia and offered her a glass of wine. She drank but he did not, she says in the suit, and she “began to feel woozy.” She told him she wanted to leave but he said no taxis were available, it continues.
The suit says that Portnow then told the woman, “I have been thinking about you for a very long time,” before she passed out. She claims she awoke several times throughout the night while Portnow was sexually assaulting her. The suit claims that Portnow is ignored several later attempts by the woman to contact him. However, it includes and image of a November 2018 email from a lawyer for Portnow to the woman in which he wrote, “Please know that I have always respected you in every way at all times, both professionally and personally. I remember your indicating your interest and belief in the teachings of Buddha and I found this saying which resonates with you now: ‘Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.’”
The 75-year-old Portnow denies the allegations and remains a powerful figure in the entertainment industry.
If you or a loved one have been sexually assaulted or harassed by a powerful figure, please contact me for an evaluation of your matter. I have spent two decades fighting for those who’ve been abused by the rich and powerful.
