Last month, pervy American Apparel CEO Dov Charney was sued by (first one, then several more) former employees for alleged sexual harassment. As the media war over Dov's reputation raged, new facts came to light —incriminating texts, emails, and photos from his accusers—that made it seem that Dov might actually be innocent this time. But of course, Dov couldn't leave well enough alone.
At the same time that stories that seemed to vindicate him started popping up in the news, several fake blogs bearing the names of his accusers also popped up online—complete with all of the uncensored, explicit photos of the girls that Dov had in his possession.
Now, the inordinate sleazebaggery may be backfiring. Dov Charney (and Kyung Chung, a photographer who took the photos) is now being sued again by three of the same plaintiffs who sued him before—Alyssa Ferguson, Irene Morales, and Tesa Lubans-Dehaven. This time, they're suing him for defamation, impersonation, invasion of privacy, and "intentional infliction of emotional distress" for posting those fictitious blogs with explicit photos, and for leaking their photos to the media.
Now, we don't know whether the women in question were "forced to pose for certain suggestive photos" as the suit alleges; and we're not generally in favor of suing people for leaking newsworthy documents to the media. But the act of creating multiple fake blogs in these women's names, full of X-rated photos of them, was an unnecessary, sleazy smear campaign. Crucially, the suit says that only Dov or someone working for him could have done it:
So basically Dov Charney could be innocent of what he was sued for in the first place, but be found guilty and end up having to pay a shitload of money just for handling the first lawsuit in such a sleazy way. Hypothetically. Wouldn't that be funny?
The full lawsuit is here
[Photo of Charney via Getty Images. Additional research by John Cook]
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