A judge Wednesday approved a $500 settlement of a lawsuit brought by a former wardrobe stylist for the NFL Network against her ex-employer, alleging sexual harassment, age discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination and defamation.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Stern granted Jami Cantor’s motion to resolve her lawsuit, which sought civil penalties under the state Private Attorneys General Act. She agreed to drop all her claims in exchange for the agreement.
In January, ESPN, the then-employer of former NFL Network analysts Donovan McNabb and Eric Davis, fired the two radio hosts after a month-long investigation into their alleged behavior while working with Cantor.
Under PAGA, 75 percent of the settlement will be distributed to the state Labor & Workforce Development Agency and the rest to Cantor as an “aggrieved employee.” The LWDA is a cabinet-level state agency that coordinates workforce programs by overseeing seven major departments dealing with benefit administration and enforcement of California labor laws,
In her lawsuit filed last September, Cantor said she was hired in 2006 and worked at the NFL’s Culver City studio. Part of her job duties involved building “a wardrobe closet so the talent would have clothes to wear at the NFL shows,” according to her court papers.
Throughout her employment, Cantor alleged, she was subjected to sexual harassment by NFL employees.
“They would touch her butt, breasts, point to their private parts in front of her,” and also made inappropriate comments to Cantor, including, “I can’t handle your (posterior), it is so luscious,” the suit alleged.
The employees also sent her photos of themselves in their underwear and naked in the shower, according to her court papers.
“Nothing was done in response to plaintiff’s complaints,” the suit alleged. “Instead, NFL made it more difficult for plaintiff to do her job by increasing her work load and cutting her hours.”
Cantor used her own credit card to buy clothes for the NFL employees, but was not fully reimbursed, according to the suit, which also alleges she was required to work overtime without pay and was not given meal and rest breaks.
Cantor was fired in October 2016 after falsely being accused of stealing clothing from one of the employees, even though a viewing of an internal video would have shown she took nothing, the suit stated. She was 51 years old when she was fired and her replacement was 30, according to the lawsuit.