ABC producer sues ex-‘Good Morning America’ boss for sexual assault

In April, Michael Corn, the producer of ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ since 2014 left the network and according to Variety, the staffers were “taken aback by the decision.”

Early on Wednesday, Michael Corn was accused of sexually assaulting two women working at ABC News. Kristyn Crawford, 31, an anchor producer for ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, and Jill McClain who was also an employee till 2013.

In the lawsuit, Ms. Crawford alleges Corn sexually assaulted her after a work party when the latter was drunk. The alleged incident took place in Feb. 2015. In her lawsuit, she also alleges that another employee was also sexually assaulted by him in 2010 and 2011, and the woman opened up to Ms. Crawford earlier this year. Both women then reported the sexual assaults to the ABC management in February 2021.

After the allegations were brought to their notice, the ABC management allegedly decided to push Corn towards a resignation which was then reported (as mentioned earlier), by Variety. The resignation took staffers by surprise as Corn was involved with the team since 2014 and they were supposedly left in the dark. Staffers at ABC are now frustrated or rather plain angry and are demanding answers.

The lawsuit alleges that Corn joined Ms. Crawford in an Uber ride after the latter called one to her location because other staffers left the premises to carry on partying at another location.

She alleges that Corn had grabbed her hand during the Uber ride and told her he wanted to be able to help her in her career, then went on to allegedly pull her head onto his chest and told her to relax. While she was trying to pull away, Corn allegedly kissed her and rubbed her legs.

Corn, according to the court filings also pretended to lose his room keys when they reached the hotel. In the filings, it was implied that Corn had done this on purpose to get into Ms. Crawford’s room, but she went to the reception to ask for a spare key, and Corn then called on her saying he had found the key and it was with him all along.

According to the lawsuit, to avoid getting him to her room, Crawford went with Corn to his room.

Ms. Crawford went inside Corn’s room on the latter’s invitation as she didn’t want to upset her new boss, she sat on a corner of his bed. Corn then allegedly pulled her onto the bed and brought her head onto his chest, and then kissed the top of her head and felt her arm, according to the documents.

Crawford who was astonished but managed to sneak out and go into her own room, but Corn then allegedly barged into her room and left after Crawford implored him to leave.

According to the lawsuit, ABC News was allegedly aware of the incident involving Ms. Crawford in as far back as 2017, but did nothing to protect her. It also alleges that ABC has a “culture” of burying the sexual assault incidents to protect its brand name, and ABC after Corn’s resignation did not publicly reveal the reason nor condemned it when they allegedly learned about it way back in 2017.

Kristyn Crawford isn’t the only alleged victim. Corn is accused of sexually assaulting another woman, twice. Jill McClain was working for Diane Sawyer at the time and in 2010 when Corn was seated next to her on a flight, he allegedly began to massage her hand and arm, then went on to rub her thigh, and then slid his hand on her vagina, beginning to rub it over her jeans.

To stop this, McClain turned towards the window and pretended to fall asleep so that her vagina goes out of Corn’s reach, the court files allege.

In 2011, during UK’s Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding, a drunk Corn alleged sexually assaulted McClain after bulldozing into her hotel room. Corn allegedly pushed McClain to a wall and then threw her on the bed, began to kiss her, then pulled down her top and her bra, and groped her breasts, according to the lawsuit.

McClain, managed to push Corn off of her and screamed at him to get out which he did while being annoyed, the lawsuit added.

According to the suit, McClain then told some colleagues that Corn was “creepy” and because of the trauma did not garner the strength to tell her fiancé.

The lawsuit goes on to say that Corn also hosted a toxic culture and work environment at ABC, employees were peer-pressured to binge drink and were mocked for not participating.

In his defense, Corn released a statement through his attorney and has “vehemently” denied the allegations. But they have left staffers at ABC angry who are demanding answers. This is something that was allegedly kept secret from them and Ms. Crawford is suing both Corn and ABC.

McClain’s claim has expired and she is not a plaintiff in the lawsuit but is a supporter.

In his statement, Corn says the emails shared by his legal team show Crawford’s allegations to be false. Corn’s legal team is not taking the lawsuit easily and are going with a confrontational strategy, they showed an email correspondence which have Crawford and Corn engaging in a friendly chat the same day after the alleged sexual assault took place.

His statement also highlights an alleged scenario happening hours after the sexual assault, and according to him Ms. Crawford brought breakfast to his hotel room after asking him his room number. He also alleges she “repeatedly” offered him to share a car with her and he then helped counsel her through a work-related issue.

Corn has also dismissed Ms. McClain’s allegations, claiming that after the alleged incident(s), she told his wife how she missed Corn after she had left ABC. Further in his statement, he alleges McClain had invited him to her wedding, to a pre-wedding event, and also allegedly booked air travel seats next to him in the future.

Corn has announced to push all legal remedies against the two accusers, and an ABC News spokesperson said “[They] are committed to upholding a safe and supportive work environment and have a process in place that thoroughly reviews and addresses complaints that are made. ABC News disputes the claims made against it and will address this matter in court.”