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Neil Portnow, the former head of the Grammy Awards, was accused of sexual assault in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in New York.
In the lawsuit, which names Portnow and the Recording Academy, a woman identified as Jane Doe alleges that the Recording Academy’s former executive director drugged and raped her in a hotel room in 2018 after meeting her for an interview. Lawyers for the unnamed plaintiff did not respond to a request for comment. Portnow has denied the allegations.
Portnow served as president of the Recording Academy from 2002 to 2019 before stepping down amid controversy for saying women needed to “step up” if they wanted more representation.
“The allegations in the complaint are completely false,” a spokesperson for Portnow said in a statement. “The claims are the product of the plaintiff’s imagination and are undoubtedly motivated by Mr. Portnow’s refusal to comply with the plaintiff’s outrageous demands for money and assistance in obtaining a residence visa for her.”
“Accordingly, Mr. Portnow will vigorously defend the case and prevail,” the statement said.
The lawsuit accuses the academy, which runs the Grammy Awards, of showing negligence by failing to monitor Portnow or investigate a complaint it made about him in October 2018.
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According to the lawsuit, the Academy “aided and abetted Portnow’s conduct in order to protect her reputation and silence the plaintiffs and other women in the music industry who stood up and spoke out.”
The academy said in a statement: “We continue to believe the claims are without merit and intend to vigorously defend the academy in this lawsuit.”
The woman, identified in the lawsuit as an “internationally recognized musician” and former Academy member, claimed she met with Portnow in New York in June 2018 to do an interview for a magazine. After she went to a hotel room with him, according to the lawsuit, Portnow gave her a drugged glass of wine and sexually assaulted her.
The woman said in the lawsuit that she contacted the Recording Academy about the incident and tried to file a police report. In 2020, the allegations became public through a complaint from Portnow’s successor, Deborah Dugan.
Dugan filed a complaint against the academy with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging that Portnow was accused of rape, the lawsuit says. Portnow denied the allegations at the time.
“The rape allegations are ridiculous and untrue. “The allegation that this was the case is the propagation of a lie,” he said in a statement to Variety in October 2020. “A thorough independent investigation by experienced and highly respected attorneys was conducted and I have been fully exonerated” of the allegations have no basis whatsoever and I once again unequivocally deny them.”
The allegations come days before the Grammys announce their nominations for the 2024 awards show.
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