Details of suit against Fox sports, Skip Bayless, Others 14 Counts charge Including Sexual Battery, s*x to advance career

A former Fox Sports hairstylist alleges in a lawsuit that a network executive used “his position to sexually harass women,” as well as that Skip Bayless touched her inappropriately and propositioned her for sex.

Noushin Faraji, who says she worked at Fox Sports from 2012 through last August, made a series of allegations in the 42-page lawsuit obtained by Front Office Sports. Fox, Fox Sports, FS1, FS2, Fox Sports EVP Charlie Dixon, Bayless, and FS1 host Joy Taylor are listed as defendants in the lawsuit.

In the suit filed Friday in Los Angeles, Faraji alleges that Dixon, the head of content for FS1, grabbed her buttocks at a birthday party in West Hollywood. When she relayed the encounter to Taylor, the Fox host allegedly told her to “get over it,” according to the suit.

The lawsuit seeks class-action status on behalf of Faraji and other nonexempt Fox employees working in California over the past four years. Faraji seeks unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.

After starting work on the Undisputed morning show starring Bayless, the suit alleges he began giving Faraji “lingering hugs and kisses on the cheek while putting his body against hers and pressing against her breasts.” The single mother alleges she repeatedly told Bayless she was not interested in him and did not “date at work.” She also claims she told Bayless she was suffering from ovarian cancer, after developing issues with her left ovary, in an effort to halt his advances.

Instead, Bayless became more aggressive over the years, according to the suit. He allegedly offered Faraji $1.5 million to have sex with him—and claimed he could “change” her life. The suit also claims Bayless accused Faraji of sleeping with Shannon Sharpe, his co-star on Undisputed.

As the suit alleges: “Approximately one week later, Mr. Bayless made another advance at Ms. Faraji. Ms. Faraji responded: ‘Skip, stop, you have a wife.’ Mr. Bayless responded: ‘Aren’t you Muslim? Doesn’t your dad have three to four wives?’ Ms. Faraji responded that her father was dead, and when Mr. Bayless looked taken aback, she made an excuse to leave.”

During her time at Fox, Faraji alleges she made multiple complaints to the Human Resources and Employee Relations departments.

Meanwhile, the suit alleges Taylor began “insulting Ms. Faraji on a personal and professional level” after their friendship ended. The suit also alleges that Taylor mocked the “English” pronunciation of Faraji, who is of Persian descent.

“Her lengthy tenure at Fox Sports and not-so-thinly-veiled references to multiple anonymous witnesses suggests that she may have the receipts to back up her version of the events,” said Daniel Wallach, a sports law attorney and co-host of the podcast Conduct Detrimental. “Just as importantly, she contemporaneously raised these issues with co-workers, which, in the jurors’ eyes, could boost the credibility of these claims.”

“Ms. Faraji brings forth this action because for over a decade at Fox, she was forced to endure a misogynistic, racist, and ableist workplace where executives and talent were allowed to physically and verbally abuse workers with impunity,” the suit alleges. “When Ms. Faraji and others came forward to report the wrongdoing, instead of addressing their concerns, Fox retaliated against them while the perpetrators and those who protected them were inexplicably promoted. This case thus represents yet another in a long line of cases chronicling the toxic culture at Fox, marked by bad faith promises and repeated failures to address a poisonous and entrenched patriarchy.”

Fox Sports released the following statement to FOS: “We take these allegations seriously and have no further comment at this time given this pending litigation.”

“Our client looks forward to being vindicated and hopes this will compel Fox to take meaningful and substantial steps to address and resolve the toxic workplace that has impacted her and many of her colleagues,” said Devin Abney, one of Faraji’s attorneys, in a statement to FOS on Monday.

The lawsuit follows a year of major talent changes at FS1, Fox’s national sports cable network. In August, Bayless left after eight years as the star of the Undisputed morning show. His former on-air partner, Sharpe, reached a buyout agreement in 2023 after publicly clashing with Bayless on the air.

After the cancelation of Undisputed, Dixon and FS1 management revamped the network’s weekday studio lineup this year, launching the new Breakfast Ball and The Facility, while keeping Colin Cowherd’s The Herd and Nick Wright’s First Things First in their time slots. The suit clears Cowherd of wrongdoing, saying “throughout her entire tenure at Fox, Mr. Cowherd was professional and respectful to Ms. Faraji and her coworkers.”

While not named as defendants, the suit notes that Mark Silverman, president and chief operating officer of Fox Sports, and Eric Shanks, chief executive officer and executive producer of Fox Sports, could be added to the legal action based on discovery.

In 2007, makeup artist Rita Ragone sued ESPN, alleging she was sexually harassed by host Jay Crawford and panelist Woody Paige on the former Cold Pizza morning show.

In 2017, Jami Cantor, a wardrobe stylist who worked at NFL Network for a decade, claimed in a lawsuit against the NFL-owned outlet that Warren Sapp, Donovan McNabb, Eric Davis, and others sexually harassed her. The former players listed in the lawsuit were fired from their positions at NFL Network before a settlement was reached with Cantor.

In 2019, ESPN also reached a settlement with former on-air personality Adrienne Lawrence, who alleged she was the victim of unwanted advances from male employees. She also claimed her male ESPN colleagues openly watched pornography and kept “scorecards” of female employees targeted for sex.

Source: front office sports

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