Sports big Stern sues over firing
A beloved city sports broadcaster is suing Warner Media for booting him off the air and out of a job as he went through “personal hell” trying to get his young kids out of an abusive environment, according to court papers filed Thursday.
Casey Stern — who, on top of hosting a drive-time talk show on SiriusXM, is one of the most prominent faces at Turner Sports — alleges he was discriminated against by Warner Media for prioritizing his children’s safety over his job, court documents show.
The 42-year-old father of three claims bosses at Warner sidelined and stripped him of responsibilities when he was trying to save his kids from torture and physical abuse at the hands of his estranged ex-wife Sharon Stern and her boyfriend.
The sports anchor’s ex-wife and her partner Alexander Soriano were arrested and charged with 15 felonies for physically abusing the three children, ages 3, 5, and 6, court papers filed in their Atlanta case charge.
The pair stand accused of systematically beating, torturing and emotionally abusing each of the children before they respectively reached the age of 4, the February 2020 complaint against Sharon and Soriano charges.
Stern (photo) says Turner Sports was less than sympathetic to his needs as he tried to legally extricate the kids from their abusive mother. Work assignments thinned out, and in September 2020, Turner Sports fired him as the host of its MLB postseason coverage and decided not to renew his contract in August.
Court papers filed in Stern’s case against Warner with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission cite several examples of how execs responded to his requests for accommodation as he tried to gain full custody of his kids. “When are you going to stop using this family situation as an excuse?” the complaint quotes John O’Connor, NBA TV’s executive producer, as saying.
On another occasion, Stern claims Turner’s director of talent relations, Olivia Scarlett, told him, “A lot of us have nanny issues.”
An attorney for Warner Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment.