Former CBS Chief Government Leslie Moonves has agreed to pay an $11,250 advantageous to settle a Los Angeles Metropolis Ethics Fee grievance that accused him of interfering with a police investigation and inducing a authorities official to violate legal guidelines.
The incident dates again to November 2017 when former Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Cory Palka started working with Moonves and different CBS executives to allegedly bury an LAPD grievance made by a girl who had accused Moonves of sexual assault within the Nineteen Eighties.
On the time, Moonves was generally known as the tv business’s strongest govt. He had presided over CBS for greater than 20 years, the architect of the community’s dramatic turnaround.
Palka, who has since retired, was then head of the Los Angeles Police Division’s Hollywood station. He’d recognized Moonves for almost a decade as a result of he had been a part of Moonves’ safety element for the Grammy Awards for a number of years.
Moonves’ illustrious profession quickly collapsed amid a widening intercourse scandal that got here to gentle as a part of the #MeToo motion. Moonves, who stepped down from CBS in September 2018, has denied harassing or assaulting ladies.
His unraveling started Nov. 10, 2017, when a former colleague, Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb, was impressed to talk out about her allegations of previous dealings with Moonves. She drove to the Hollywood station to file a report towards Moonves. Later that evening, Palka known as CBS officers and alerted them to the existence of Golden-Gottlieb’s report.
Over the following few weeks, Palka, Moonves and one in every of Moonves’ underlings mentioned methods to thwart Golden-Gottlieb’s report and labored to verify it didn’t achieve traction inside the Police Division or the L.A. County district legal professional’s workplace, in keeping with data within the case, which got here to gentle in late 2022 as a part of a report by New York Atty. Gen. Leticia James.
James had accused Moonves and CBS of deceptive traders concerning the scope of the sexual harassment uncovered at CBS — info that was damaging to the corporate’s inventory.
The revelations despatched shock waves all through LAPD and sparked a number of investigations into Moonves’ and Palka’s alleged actions.
LAPD Chief Michel Moore launched an investigation into the matter in November 2022. Final fall, the Police Division mentioned it had accomplished its inner investigation however declined to element its findings, citing state legal guidelines that present confidentiality for former officers.
A consultant of Moonves declined to remark Friday evening. Moonves’ attorneys couldn’t be instantly reached for remark.
The previous CBS chief was accused of three violations of town’s Authorities Ethics Ordinance, which governs the conduct of metropolis workers and forbids them from misusing or disclosing confidential info acquired by means of their work.
Underneath phrases of the proposed settlement, Moonves has acknowledged that he violated metropolis legal guidelines by “aiding and abetting the disclosure and misuse of confidential info.”
He additionally admitted to inducing “a metropolis official to misuse his place to try to create a non-public benefit for Moonves.”
The Ethics Fee investigators cited Moonves’ request of Palka, which was made by means of Moonves’ former underling Ian Metrose, to “present details about LAPD’s investigation of the Gottlieb grievance, thereby aiding and abetting Palka within the disclosure of confidential info,” in keeping with the settlement. The three males met in particular person to debate Golden-Gottlieb’s confidential grievance and methods to blunt it.
The ethics grievance additionally accused Moonves of violating town ordinance by inducing Palka “to create for Moonves the non-public benefits of entry to confidential info from an LAPD investigation.”
Every depend carried a most penalty of $5,000, or $15,000 for the three counts. As a part of the settlement, Moonves agreed to supply a cashier’s test for $11,250 earlier this week. The Ethics Fee is scheduled to listen to the matter at its assembly subsequent week.
Instances employees author Richard Winton contributed to this report.
