Jonathan Coachman parted ways with ESPN a few months ago, and he recently returned to WWE where he currently works as part of the commentary team on Monday Night Raw. But it looks like Jonathan Coachman’s past with ESPN could have an impact on his WWE career.
The New York Post is reporting that former ESPN anchor and legal analyst Adrienne Lawrence is accusing Coachman of sexual harassment, and she filed a discrimination lawsuit on Sunday, alleging that Coachman, Chris Berman, Bomani Jones and others sexually harassed female employees. WWE issued the following statement in response to the claims:
“We take these matters very seriously and are investigating them.”
Lawrence previously filed a complaint with ESPN last summer, but her new lawsuit, which was filed in the state of Connecticut divulges more details. ESPN issued the following statement in response to her previous complaint:
“We conducted a thorough investigation of the claims Adrienne Lawrence surfaced to ESPN and they are entirely without merit,” ESPN said in a statement. “Ms. Lawrence was hired into a two-year talent development program and was told that her contract would not be renewed at the conclusion of the training program. At that same time, ESPN also told 100 other talent with substantially more experience, that their contracts would not be renewed. The company will vigorously defend its position and we are confident we will prevail in court.”
It’s being claimed that Coachman took a page out of the “ESPN predator’s playbook” when he offered to mentor Lawrence, but later tried to turn the relationship personal. Lawrence also says that she was advised Coachman had sexually harassed female employees in the past.
“After learning that, Ms. Lawrence made an effort to communicate to Coachman that she had a boyfriend, after which she did not hear from him again,” the suit states.
Normally WWE has a zero tolerance policy for these type of situations, so we’ll have to wait and see what type of action the company takes.
