A lawsuit accusing CNN anchor Don Lemon of sexual assault was dropped Monday after his accuser claimed false recollections were the basis for the action.
The Hill reports plaintiff Dustin Hice used a public statement to outline his “recollection of the events that occurred on the night in question when I first met CNN anchor Don Lemon were not what I thought they were when I filed this lawsuit.”
He said the realization came “after a lot of inner reflection and a deep dive into my memory.”
As Breitbart News reported, Hice alleged that in July of 2018, at Murf’s Backstreet Tavern in Sag Harbor, Lemon “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 mustache and under Plaintiff’s nose.”
While doing this, Lemon allegedly kept asking the plaintiff, “Do you like pussy or dick?” causing Hice to claim he “suffered trauma and humiliation” as a result.
Tim Malone and Don Lemon attend HBO’s “Very Ralph” World Premiere at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on October 23, 2019 in New York City. (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
Lemon always denied any wrongdoing and strenuously protested his announce, with his attorney Caroline Polisi releasing a statement Monday detailing the suit was “a crass money grab from its inception.”
“This has been a long and difficult journey for Don. Out of respect for the judicial process and my advice, he has had to remain silent in the face of a malicious and vulgar attack on his character,” Polisi wrote, according to the Hill.
She added: “Unfortunately, being a gay Black man in the media, he has had to deal with these sorts of attacks for quite some time.”
Polisi called the reporting on the story “unethical and uninformed” while reinforcing Lemon did not pay Hice anything throughout the years-long process of dealing with the suit.
“The Court’s ruling fully vindicates Mr. Lemon and brings an end to this abusive lawsuit,” she wrote.