Neil Portnow, the former president and CEO of the Recording Academy, strenuously denies an allegation of rape included in a complaint filed by his successor, Deborah Dugan.
In a wide-ranging document filed to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission earlier this week, Dugan alleged that Portnow was fired from his role for raping a female musician.
The Academy placed Dugan herself on administrative leave earlier this month. This was after accusations of misconduct by a “senior female member” of the Recording Academy against her.
Portnow now denies the rape allegation in a statement to Variety on Tuesday. He acknowledged that a complaint had been against him at one point.
Then he claimed that an independent investigation had proven him innocent. “This document is full of inaccurate, false and outrageous and terribly hurtful claims against me,” Portnow told Variety.
“The allegations of rape are ludicrous, and untrue. The suggestion that there was is disseminating a lie.
“Dugan immediately brought the baseless complaint about my conduct in the EEOC filing to the attention of the Board of Director’s Executive Committee.
“Experienced and highly regarded lawyers conducted an in-depth independent investigation and completely exonerated me. There was no basis for the allegations and once again I deny them unequivocally.”
Dugan’s full complaint alleges rampant corruption and harassment at the Grammys. Read it in full here.
