NHL's LA Kings' mascot 'Bailey the Lion' accused of sexually harassing woman in lawsuit 'worth more than $1MN'
LA Kings' NHL mascot Bailey © Aaron Doster / USA Today Sports via Reuters
NHL side the Los Angeles Kings have suspended an employee who is being sued for alleged sexual misconduct, reportedly including waving his crotch in a woman's face in the mascot locker room and leering at her breasts and behind.
The team's lion mascot, Bailey, is said to be at the center of the allegations from a woman who claims to have rejected sexual advances while she was working as part of the Kings' Ice Crew entertainment staff.
Tim Smith, the man inside the furry suit and the club's senior manager of game presentation and events, is the figure named in a reported lawsuit for more than $1 million in damages that includes lewd jokes, sexual comments and leering at her "breasts and buttocks", according to the Los Angeles Times.
The woman, known as Jane Doe to protect her identity, is thought to have joined the team in 2018 before being fired after telling Smith his actions were unwanted.
She is said to have been promised protection from Smith in return for resuming her duties, only to endure him allegedly putting his crotch in her face in the mascot locker room while thrusting his hips and making rude remarks.
Smith was sued for sexual misconduct stemming from a separate incident in 2017, when he was accused of groping a man’s buttocks in a Staples Center elevator.
An internal investigation found no merit in the allegations and the suit was reportedly later settled.
In a statement, the Kings said they wanted everyone to work in an environment free from harassment and discrimination and were taking the allegations "very seriously".
"We will conduct a thorough investigation into this matter," they promised. "The employee in question has been suspended, effective immediately, pending the conclusion of the investigation.”
Smith remains the only name mentioned on a form on the team's website inviting the public to request an appearance from Bailey. Fans are also able to pay between $250 and $1,800 in return for two game tickets and the chance to ride with Bailey while holding on to him as he drives a cart across the ice after home games.
The long-serving lion acts as a figurehead in support of the team's Kings Care Foundation non-profit children's charity.
Rose McGowan accuses award-winning director Alexander Payne of sexual misconduct
“Alexander Payne. You sat me down & played a soft-core porn movie you directed for Showtime under a different name,” the actress said in a Twitter post addressing the film director. She added that she still remembers his apartment in Silverlake and that he is “very well-endowed.”
McGowan also said that she was 15 at the time of the alleged encounter, in a post featuring a GIF of herself saying “no."
Payne, 59, is known for such films as ‘Sideways’ and ‘The Descendants’, both of which earned him Academy Awards for best adapted screenplay.
Magnum investigating archive over images of alleged
child sexual abuse
Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its humanist photographer-members, with offices in New York City, Paris, London and Tokyo. Founded in 1947 in Paris. - Wikipedia
At the center of the controversy is a series of images made in 1989 by American photographer David Alan Harvey that document sex workers in Bangkok and were, until recently, tagged in Magnum’s archive as “teenage girl – 13 to 18 years.” The entire archive has since been taken offline. A spokesperson for Magnum told The Guardian that the agency has not yet determined the accuracy of the tags or who provided them. Artforum has contacted Harvey for comment.
A statement published on Friday by Magnum’s new president, the British photographer Olivia Arthur, said that the cooperative—widely considered the world’s leading photography agency—was made aware of “historical material in our archive that is problematic in terms of imagery, captioning or keywording and we are taking this extremely seriously. We have begun a process of in-depth internal review—with outside guidance—to make sure that we fully understand the implications of the work in the archive, both in terms of imagery and context.”
“Standards for what has been acceptable have evolved,” Arthur continued in her statement. “Issues and questions that were previously overlooked, have to be addressed. That’s a good thing. With this review of the archive we do not want to undo historical work but make sure that we understand the full ethical considerations. Some cases will be clear cut, others will not be easy decisions, full of grey zones.” According to Fstoppers.com, Magnum’s website yielded more than 100 results with the search terms “girl prostitute.”
Arthur’s statement drew rebuke online, where many condemned the use of the word “historical” as a way for Magnum to absolve itself of responsibility for the images in question, many of which flout UNICEF’s guidelines for ethically documenting children. Some critics have urged Magnum—founded on humanist ideals in 1947 by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger, and David Seymour—to expand its reckoning to account more broadly for the legacy of the collective, which has faced mounting criticism for facilitating the exploitation of photographed subjects.
Last month, Magnum recruited five new members—including three photographers of color—following complaints about the co-op’s lack of diversity made during this summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, which have lent a new, urgent backdrop to longstanding industry debates over issues of ethics and consent.
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'I JUST SHUT MY EYES' Poldark star Ciara Charteris says
she was raped by a close friend five years ago
Jamie Downham, The Sun
POLDARK star Ciara Charteris has bravely revealed she was raped by a close friend five years ago.
The actress opened up about the trauma in an online post, which she said took place on a friend's birthday night out in 2015.
Ciara, 25, who played Emma Tregirls in Poldark, added that the man was never charged over the alleged incident.
She wrote: "Although I have struggled to say the word rape out loud for a long time, I knew that’s what had happened.
"Despite saying no numerous times, begging him to get off me, trying to physically pull him off, my flight mode was not attuned to protect me from a rapist that had the face of my best friend.
"So I just shut my eyes and passed out in terrified defeat. Only waking later to clean myself up and try and find my bottoms."
She played Emma Tregirls on BBC drama Poldark until 2018Credit: BBC
Writing on survivors' blog I Am Arla, she said she did not report the incident until December last year.
Ciara wrote: "In March 2020, just as Covid-19 lock-down came with a new set of rules I was already used to, I got the call to say that he would not be charged.
"This was not surprising, and to quote the police: ‘it does not make him innocent.’
"For any Rape Apologists out there - more on how the system is unequivocally built to protect men like him and how blatantly those working in it know it - next time.
Ciara playing Lucy in 2016 BBC drama Close To The Enemy
"I had achieved what I set out to do and his name will forever be listed with the police. Nevertheless, the decision not to charge him still hit hard."
She concluded: "When it comes to sexual assault and rape, I am not the worst case, I am not the first case, and sadly I will not be the last.
"But I am done letting the weakness of others define me.
"No matter what difficulties life chucks at us, I believe with honesty and kindness at the heart we are all undefeatable."
As well as appearing in Poldark, Ciara played Harriet Shelley in period drama film Mary Shelley.
She also starred as Lucy in 1940s-set mini-series Close To The Enemy but now describes herself as an "ex-actor".
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French authorities open investigation into
former Paris deputy mayor
By Clyde Hughes
Former Paris Deputy Mayor Christophe Girard, shown giving a speech in Paris Aug. 24, 2017, is being investigated on rape charges, French authorities said Tuesday. Photo by Christophe Petit Tesson/EPA-EFE
(UPI) -- French authorities confirmed Tuesday they have opened a rape investigation against former Paris Deputy Mayor Christophe Girard after a report accused him of assaulting a teenager more than 20 years ago.
Girard said he had considered Aniss Hmaid, now 46, a member of the family, hiring him as domestic help when he was a teenager.
Hmaid told the New York Times that Girard, now 64, sexually assaulted him repeatedly when he was underage before Girard started his career in politics.
French prosecutor Remy Heitz said Girard was being investigated on the accusation of "rape by a person in a position of authority. He said the investigation will determine if the allegations "could be characterized as a crime" and "if the statute of limitations applies to them."
Girard left his post as deputy to Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo in July after his ties to writer Gabriel Matzneff were revealed. Matzneff was connected to pedophilia (5th story on link) and groups in France demanded Girard leave office.
Girard's attorney, Delphine Meillet, said her client would not resign from Paris city council and he was not guilty of the charges.
"There is no criminal offense and if there were one, it would not be legally valid because of the statute of limitations," Meillet said.
Hmaid accused Girard of sexually abusing him and coercing him into sex about 20 times during a relationship that lasted 10 years.
'Lewd video' of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft cannot be used in massage parlor sex trial, court rules
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. © Reuters
A video allegedly showing American billionaire Robert Kraft engaging in sex acts at a Florida massage parlor cannot be shown in court, it has been ruled, striking a blow to the prosecution in the ongoing prostitution case.
An appeals court within the state ruled on Wednesday that Kraft, 79, the business magnate who owns the New England Patriots, had his rights violated when police secretly recorded him and others allegedly paying for sex acts at the massage parlor in Jupiter, Florida, which came as part of a larger investigation into human trafficking.
Rules for the rich are different from rules for the rest of us!
The court cited Kraft's Fourth Amendment rights, which protects him from "unreasonable searches and seizures."
"The type of law enforcement surveillance utilized in these cases is extreme. While there will be situations which may warrant the use of the techniques at issue, the strict Fourth Amendment safeguards developed over the past few decades must be observed," the court announced.
"To permit otherwise would yield unbridled discretion to agents of law enforcement and the government, the antithesis of the constitutional liberty of people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures."
Should the ruling fail to be overturned by the inevitable appeal to the state Supreme Court, it will almost certainly mean that the case against Kraft - and several others linked to it - will be dropped due to a lack of evidence, but the case against individuals linked to the Orchids of Asia parlor will likely proceed as additional, non-video evidence exists against them.
Kraft and others were charged with solicitation of prostitution in February last year after a police investigation which included the installation of cameras inside the massage parlor, with the authorities saying the tapes showed Kraft being involved in paying for sex acts with women. He subsequently apologized but pleaded not guilty.
The prosecution had argued that the video evidence in crucial to their case as it establishes that the massage parlor was complicit in receiving cash payments as a result of prostitution, and shows that Kraft, other men and the masseuses were engaged in crime.
The police also alleged that 95 percent of the massages performed on men ended with sex acts.
"Given the unique and difficult circumstances confronting these officers, the conspiracy, the logistics of the operation, what they reasonably anticipated they would see and the difficulty of knowing at the start of any given massage will this end with a 'happy ending' or will it not, we think what law enforcement did here was entirely reasonable," state deputy solicitor general Jeffrey DeSousa said.
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