The ruling was disputed by Don Lemon’s attorneys, who requested a bench trial and no jury.
“Lemon will testify under oath soon, and it is good to see that there is finally going to be some accountability,” Lemon’s accuser Dustin Hice said following the ruling, Fox News said.
A report inside the magazine People said Dustin Hice first asked for $1.5 million from Lemon.
The lawsuit says that following some words between the 2 men at a bar Lemon sexually assaulted him, People reported.
Don Lemon denied these charges, while CNN said the whole lawsuit is driven by dislike to the network, which Dustin Hice told Fox News was “a network with perverts and predators.”
“The plaintiff has shown a pattern of contempt for CNN in the past on his social media accounts,” According to a statement by CNN. “This claim comes after his threats that were not successful and his demands for a large amount of money from Lemon. Don denies these claims and there is no further comments on this matter at this time.”
Andrew Miltenberg, an attorney who represented Hice in the past, said that the claim was absurd.
“The claim that Mr. Dustin Hice would cause himself to be put through a hurtful process of a sexual assault lawsuit just because he does not like a TV station is crazy. It is a shame that CNN has resorted to blaming the victim in order to draw away from Mr. Lemon’s sexual misconduct,” he said.
“They have tried to beat me down, they have tried to intimidate the witnesses in my case, they have released private information about me. They’re complicit. That is who they are,” Hice said.
In a Nov. interview with Megyn Kelly, Dustin Hice was asked if he believed Lemon had done what he is accusing him of before.
“Anybody that can act like that in public places and not have any fear of what it could do to somebody or what will happen from it, this is a pattern,” Hice said, according to the New York Post.
“I would not be surprised,” Hice said. “He is protected because he is an African American, gay man that is on television and I am just nobody.”
Hice said to Fox News that at one time Lemon’s made an offer to settle for $500,000, but lawyer Caroline Polisi stated that Lemon had offered “to settle for a nuisance value of $8,000.”
Lemon is one of many past and current CNN anchors who have made the news because of alleged misdeeds.
