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U.S.|Judge Pauses Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Against Trump’s Education Secretary Pick
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/08/us/linda-mcmahon-sexual-abuse-lawsuit.html
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Linda McMahon is accused of failing to stop abuse in the 1980s within W.W.E., which she led at the time. The suit is on hold pending a ruling over a state law related to such cases.
Dec. 8, 2024, 4:42 p.m. ET
A federal judge in Maryland has paused a lawsuit against Linda McMahon, the former World Wrestling Entertainment executive whom President-elect Trump chose for education secretary, while another court weighs a recent state law involving such cases.
The lawsuit claims that Ms. McMahon and her husband, Vince McMahon — who together led W.W.E. starting in the early 1980s — had failed to act on credible allegations that an employee of the organization had sexually abused “ring boys,” who ran errands and assisted with various tasks before wrestling matches. The McMahons have firmly denied the allegations.
Judge James K. Bredar of the U.S. District Court in Maryland granted on Tuesday the defendants’ request to stay the case until the Maryland Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of a state law enacted in 2023. That measure erased the statute of limitations for certain civil lawsuits related to child sexual abuse, allowing for more plaintiffs to file such cases. The judge said that the stay was warranted because the state Supreme Court’s decision could determine the outcome of this lawsuit.
Five former ring boys sued in late October, just weeks before Ms. McMahon’s selection as education secretary was announced, claiming they had faced abuse in the 1980s from Melvin Phillips Jr., a former ringside announcer and ring crew chief, who died in 2012. The plaintiffs, who were not named, had met Mr. Phillips when they were 13 to 15 years old, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed against the McMahons, W.W.E. and its parent company, TKO Group Holdings, says the defendants had a duty to protect the boys and “yet failed to prevent the abuse by taking even the most reasonable measures.”
In a statement to CNN, Ms. McMahon’s lawyer, Laura Brevetti, dismissed the claims as baseless, saying the lawsuit “is filled with scurrilous lies, exaggerations and misrepresentations regarding Linda McMahon.”
