CBS News settles lawsuit with women who accused Charlie Rose of harassment
CBS NEWS has settled a lawsuit filed by three women who accused Charlie Rose of sexually harassing them and accused the network of being “fully aware” of his behaviour.
A statement from CBS spokeswoman Christa Robinson said, “The matter has been resolved.”
The settlement amount is confidential, at the plaintiffs’ request, Robinson said.
The portion of the lawsuit that names Rose is still active, Ken Goldberg, a lawyer for the women, said in a statement on Tuesday night.
“Goldberg and Fliegel LLP, counsel for the plaintiffs, confirms that the lawsuit has been settled as between the plaintiffs and CBS News,” the statement said.
The lawsuit was filed in New York state court in May by Brooks Harris and Chelsea Wei, who worked with Rose at “CBS This Morning,” and Sydney McNeal, who had worked as one of his assistants at PBS.
It alleged that Rose had made physical contact with the women, including “caressing and touching their arms, shoulders, waist and back, pulling them close to his body and kissing them on the cheek.”
According to the claim, Rose required Harris to have lunch and dinner with him, where he would place his hands on her thigh and would point at other women and call them prostitutes.
It also included allegations about remarks Rose made about their intelligence and ethnicity. According to the lawsuit, Rose referred to Wei as a “China Doll,” and used an expletive while calling her an idiot related to a flight reservation.
The lawsuit also claimed that Ryan Kadro, the executive producer of “CBS This Morning,” had been warned about the attention Rose was paying toward Harris.
Business Insider fi rst reported the settlement.
Charlie Rose did not respond to a request for comment sent to his email address, and that of a lawyer who had been representing him on the case.
The women part of a three were group who accused Charlie Rose of inappropriate behavior or sexual harassment, during the height of the # MeToo movement. A total of 35 women have told The Washington Post that they were sexually harassed or treated inappropriately by Rose during his decades-long career in TV journalism. Fourteen of those women worked with Rose at CBS News, where The Post found that concerns about his conduct were raised to network managers as early as 1986 and as recently as 2017. — WPBloomberg