An worker of Washington’s NFL workforce accused proprietor Daniel Snyder of sexually harassing and assaulting her in April 2009, three months earlier than the workforce agreed to pay the lady $1.6 million as a part of a confidential settlement, in line with authorized correspondence obtained by The Washington Put up.
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Document reveals details of 2009 sexual assault allegation against Daniel Snyder
Snyder denied the lady’s allegations, the letter states, and a workforce investigation accused her of fabricating her claims as a part of an extortion try. However Snyder and the workforce finally agreed to pay her a seven-figure sum as a part of a settlement wherein she agreed to not sue or publicly disclose her allegations.
The existence of a $1.6 million settlement was first reported by The Put up in 2020. Particulars of her allegations haven’t been beforehand reported. They emerge because the NFL investigates a separate accusation of sexual harassment towards Snyder and as members of Congress press the workforce and the NFL for details about the league’s year-long investigation of sexual harassment on the franchise, which concluded in 2021 with no public report or investigative findings.
Snyder, by his attorneys, declined an interview request, and his attorneys declined to remark. Snyder known as the lady’s claims “meritless” in a court docket submitting in 2020, saying the workforce solely settled on the request of an insurance coverage firm. His accuser and her legal professional, Brendan Sullivan, declined to remark. The Put up usually doesn’t title alleged victims of sexual assault with out their consent.
The letter obtained by The Put up was written by Howard Shapiro, an legal professional at WilmerHale legislation agency, which had assisted in investigating the lady’s allegations. In his letter, written in response to the lady’s authorized threats, Shapiro argued forcefully that her claims had been “knowingly false,” made quite a few allegations in makes an attempt to undermine her credibility and stated Snyder and the workforce would “search damages” from her. Shapiro and WilmerHale didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The letter makes no point out of NFL involvement within the workforce investigation. The league’s private conduct coverage in 2009 required investigations of sexual assault allegations to be overseen by the league workplace, with Commissioner Roger Goodell figuring out any self-discipline. The workforce’s investigation in 2009, in line with the letter, was overseen by then-general counsel David Donovan, who reported to Snyder.
The NFL and Donovan declined to remark.
In concluding the lady fabricated the assault, the letter says, Donovan cited the aircraft’s tight configuration and quiet engine, in addition to interviews with passengers who stated they didn’t discover indicators of an assault or misery in the course of the flight.
He additionally accused her of mendacity in the course of the investigation, the letter states, by claiming she maintained an “impeccable private {and professional} popularity.” To undermine that declare, Donovan cited allegations concerning the lady’s private conduct, together with that she wore revealing clothes and flirted with different males on the journey to Las Vegas.
The Put up described the workforce investigation, as summarized within the letter, to a few consultants in sexual assault investigations, who stated the workforce could have been justified in concluding that the lady’s declare was unsubstantiated. However these consultants stated the proof cited within the letter doesn’t show the lady fabricated her claims, and so they criticized the inclusion of probably damaging allegations concerning the lady’s private life, no matter Donovan’s rationale.
“That is precisely the kind of stuff we’ve labored laborious for the reason that Nineteen Seventies to abolish from how intercourse crimes are investigated,” stated Joanne Archambault, a retired sergeant with the San Diego Police Division who oversaw intercourse crimes investigations and the founding father of Finish Violence Towards Girls Worldwide.
D.C. legal professional Beth Wilkinson, who led the NFL’s investigation of Washington’s office, interviewed Snyder’s 2009 accuser in 2020, The Put up beforehand reported. However she did so amid what she later described as efforts by Snyder’s legal professionals to “silence” the lady, together with by providing her extra money to not converse with the NFL investigator. An legal professional for Snyder has denied these allegations.
As Wilkinson investigated in 2020, she additionally fended off a lawsuit by Donovan, who requested a federal choose to ban Wilkinson from disclosing something concerning the 2009 investigation or settlement in her remaining report back to the NFL. The Put up tried to intervene within the case, to advocate for the unsealing of information, however a choose denied the request.
Donovan dropped his lawsuit, however no matter Wilkinson concluded concerning the 2009 allegations towards Snyder stays confidential due to Goodell’s refusal to launch any public report or findings from her investigation. Wilkinson declined to remark.
Goodell’s dealing with of Wilkinson’s investigation led Democrats on the Home Oversight Committee to launch their very own inquiry final fall. That probe surfaced the brand new allegation of sexual harassment towards Snyder, by former worker Tiffani Johnston. Showing earlier than the committee in February, Johnston, a former cheerleader and advertising and marketing supervisor for the workforce, accused the proprietor of placing his hand on her leg below the desk at a workforce dinner and making an attempt to pressure her into his limousine.
Snyder has denied Johnston’s allegations. The NFL employed Mary Jo White, a former U.S. legal professional and chairwoman of the Securities and Alternate Fee, to analyze her claims in addition to accusations of monetary improprieties raised by a former vice chairman of gross sales, which the workforce additionally has denied.
White didn’t reply to requests for remark.
On Wednesday, Goodell is scheduled to look earlier than the Home Oversight Committee to debate the NFL’s dealing with of its investigation of Washington’s office tradition. Snyder declined a request to look on the identical listening to, saying he had a team-related enterprise assembly abroad the identical day.
In certainly one of Goodell’s first vital acts as NFL commissioner, he strengthened the league’s private conduct coverage in 2007 after a string of off-the-field scandals involving gamers accused of legal exercise.
The brand new coverage utilized to everybody related to the NFL, together with house owners, and prohibited any “conduct detrimental to the integrity” of the league. The coverage went past barring simply legal exercise, the league introduced, and neither a conviction nor an arrest was required for the NFL to analyze and impose self-discipline.
“It isn’t sufficient merely to keep away from being discovered responsible of against the law,” the up to date coverage stated in April 2007. “As an worker of the NFL or a member membership, you’re held to a better commonplace.” Upon studying of an alleged violation of the coverage, the league workplace would direct an investigation, and Goodell would decide whether or not any punishment was warranted.
Two years later, the lady who labored for the NFL’s Washington franchise, now often called the Commanders, returned from a weekend work journey to Las Vegas with a startling accusation. On the return flight, the lady alleged, Snyder sexually assaulted her.
In keeping with the letter, the lady alleged that Snyder requested her to take a seat with him in a non-public space in the back of the aircraft, away from the opposite passengers. At one level in the course of the flight, she alleged, Snyder requested her for intercourse, groped her and tried to drag off her clothes earlier than she stopped the assault and pushed him away.
Snyder and the lady had been joined on the aircraft by six different passengers, two pilots and two flight attendants, in line with the letter, which doesn’t establish any of the opposite folks on board. The group had attended the earlier night time’s Academy of Nation Music Awards, a present placed on by Dick Clark Productions, which Snyder owned on the time.
Efforts by The Put up to establish the opposite passengers and the crew on board have been unsuccessful. A number of former longtime pilots for Snyder didn’t reply to requests for remark, and several other different former members of the workforce’s senior administration, who may need had data of the lady’s allegations, declined to remark or didn’t reply to interview requests.
The girl didn’t report her allegations to legislation enforcement in 2009, in line with a number of folks acquainted with the matter, who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk publicly. As a substitute, she employed an legal professional and dealt straight with the workforce.
A number of days after getting back from Las Vegas, the lady met with Donovan and reported her allegations, the letter states. Donovan then employed WilmerHale, the agency the place he labored earlier than and after his tenure with the workforce, to help him as he investigated, he later stated in a court docket submitting.
As he led the investigation, Donovan reported to Snyder as basic counsel of each the workforce and Pink Zebra Broadcasting, one other firm owned by Snyder on the time. This relationship constituted a battle of curiosity, in line with Elaine Herskowitz, former employees legal professional with the U.S. Equal Employment Alternative Fee.
“You possibly can’t have the individual main your investigation involved they could get fired if they arrive to the fallacious conclusion,” stated Herskowitz, now a advisor. “That’s an enormous drawback. This complete investigation didn’t have sufficient independence and neutrality.”
Company basic counsels usually oversee sexual harassment investigations of rank-and-file employees, Herskowitz stated. When the accused is the chief govt, she stated, one of the best ways to make sure objectivity is to rent an outdoor skilled or legislation agency. The findings ought to then go to an entity that oversees the chief govt, corresponding to a board of administrators, she stated.
Whereas Donovan did rent an outdoor agency to help, his involvement with the investigation was nonetheless problematic, in line with Herskowitz, as was the involvement of one other workforce govt who reported to Snyder: then-chief working officer Mitch Gershman. When Donovan concluded his investigation, in line with the letter, he reported his discovering that the lady had lied for the aim of extorting the workforce to Gershman, who fired the lady for making “fictitious statements” about Snyder. Gershman didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Three former minority shareholders who had been members of the workforce’s board of administrators in 2009 — FedEx founder Frederick W. Smith, actual property developer Dwight Schar and investor Robert Rothman — declined to remark or didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Within the letter, Shapiro, the legal professional for the workforce, claimed Donovan’s investigation uncovered “uncontroverted proof disproving” the lady’s allegations towards Snyder. The letter then particulars a few of that proof.
Not one of the different passengers on the flight supported the lady’s account, in line with the letter. Snyder didn’t direct anybody on the place to take a seat, these folks stated, and one individual claimed the lady pushed her approach to the again of the aircraft and wasn’t invited there by Snyder.
Others stated that the door to the again space was open for a lot of the flight, with different passengers and flight attendants making frequent, unannounced visits, and that they didn’t hear any noises in step with an assault. And after Snyder’s accuser returned from sitting with Snyder, these folks stated, she acted amiably, making dialog whereas giving no indication she had simply been assaulted.
Donovan additionally claimed the lady provided a shifting account of her assault. Within the lady’s first assembly with Donovan, he alleged, she claimed Snyder “f—ed” her. A number of days later, she acknowledged Snyder “put his fingers down my pants.” On a 3rd event, she acknowledged Snyder “groped” her.
Within the letter, the workforce asserted that the lady was mendacity as a part of an extortion try. The girl talked about private monetary misery in her first assembly with Donovan, he alleged, and requested for a settlement. Donovan additionally cited an electronic mail he uncovered wherein the lady complained to her husband a couple of bank card stability of greater than $35,000, in addition to the very fact the lady had not too long ago realized she wouldn’t be receiving an anticipated bonus from the workforce.
Donovan additionally included in his investigation, in line with the letter, allegations concerning the lady’s private conduct within the days and months earlier than she accused Snyder, saying they undermined her declare of professionalism.
Amongst these allegations, in line with the letter: The girl wearing a “sexually provocative method” and wore a revealing halter prime one night in the course of the journey to Las Vegas. One other individual alleged that the lady was flirtatious with one other man that weekend and engaged in “soiled dancing.” The girl denied the allegations, the letter states.
“This goes towards every thing that’s greatest apply in intercourse assault investigations,” stated Elizabeth Donegan, a retired sergeant with the Austin Police Division who led the intercourse crimes unit. “Allegations about how a lady attire, if she flirts with different males … these things has completely nothing to do with whether or not an assault occurred.”
The consultants in intercourse assault investigations stated they may perceive a discovering that the lady’s declare was unsubstantiated, as a result of there have been no witnesses and since the letter makes no point out of the lady offering supporting proof of an assault past her account.
However in claiming Donovan had proved the lady had lied, in line with the letter, the workforce made a collection of conclusive leaps, these consultants stated.
The letter doesn’t dispute the lady was alone with Snyder in a non-public space of the aircraft for a time however cites claims by different passengers that they didn’t hear or see something suggesting an assault occurred.
“Simply because nobody else noticed or heard something doesn’t imply it’s positively false,” stated Archambault, the previous San Diego intercourse crimes sergeant.
And simply because the lady didn’t seem raveled or traumatized after she returned to the cabin with the opposite passengers, consultants stated, doesn’t imply she lied about being assaulted.
“There’s no set means that victims at all times behave instantly after being assaulted,” stated Justin Boardman, a retired detective who investigated intercourse crimes for the West Valley Metropolis police in Utah.
Within the letter, Snyder demanded a declaration that no assault occurred and advised he would try to hunt monetary damages and authorized charges from his accuser. When the perimeters finally settled in July 2009, nonetheless, Snyder didn’t get any declaration from the lady, and the workforce as a substitute agreed to pay her.
In alternate for $1.6 million, in line with a draft of the settlement beforehand reported by The Put up, the lady agreed to not converse publicly about her allegations. The workforce, Snyder and Donovan additionally agreed to by no means converse publicly concerning the workforce’s allegations concerning the lady. The workforce agreed to vary her personnel file to state that she was not fired however resigned and to supply a letter of advice that described the lady as “well-respected by her colleagues.”
For the following 11 years, the settlement remained a carefully held secret, identified solely to these straight concerned and some shut advisers to Snyder, till the workforce’s office tradition got here below public scrutiny in 2020.
When Wilkinson started investigating that July, Goodell initially permitted Snyder and the workforce to supervise her work. There have been no direct allegations about Snyder’s conduct in The Put up report that prompted the workforce to rent Wilkinson, and Snyder publicly pledged Wilkinson’s investigation could be “full” and “unbiased.”
Hostility rapidly developed between Wilkinson and legal professionals for Snyder, nonetheless, over her efforts to interview the 2009 accuser. Whereas the workforce publicly launched former workers from nondisclosure agreements to talk, Snyder’s legal professionals argued to Wilkinson this launch didn’t apply to the 2009 accuser, The Put up beforehand reported.
The NFL finally assumed oversight of Wilkinson’s investigation, and she or he interviewed Snyder’s accuser in some unspecified time in the future in late 2020. As she was making ready to interview Snyder in November 2020, nonetheless, Donovan sued Wilkinson in federal court docket, in search of an injunction that may prohibit her from discussing something linked to the 2009 settlement with the NFL. He dropped the swimsuit inside weeks.
When the NFL introduced the conclusions of Wilkinson’s investigation, in July 2021, the league fined the workforce $10 million for having an abusive office tradition however launched no public report. That stored any conclusions Wilkinson made concerning the 2009 allegations towards Snyder confidential, but it surely additionally, in impact, triggered one other investigation of the workforce’s entrance workplace. This investigation, overseen by White, will produce public findings, the NFL has stated.
White is investigating a number of allegations produced in the course of the Home Oversight Committee’s inquiry, together with the harassment allegation levied towards Snyder by Johnston, the previous cheerleading supervisor and advertising and marketing director.
Johnston is represented by Lisa Banks, an legal professional who additionally represents greater than 40 different former workers who participated in Wilkinson’s investigation. In a press release, Banks expressed optimism White would study the 2009 settlement.
“I hope and anticipate that Mary Jo White will embody in her investigation the details underlying the 2009 settlement,” Banks stated. “Such info could be straight related to the allegations of my shopper, and due to this fact squarely inside the scope of Ms. White’s investigation.”
The day Johnston went public along with her allegations, Snyder publicly denounced them as “outright lies.” A number of days later, the Commanders introduced they’d employed a legislation agency to analyze. Hours later, the NFL publicly overruled the workforce by saying it could rent its personal investigator.
Throughout a information convention that day, Goodell defined the league’s reasoning for not permitting the Commanders to supervise an investigation into accusations towards the workforce and its proprietor.
“I don’t see any means,” Goodell stated, “a workforce can do its personal investigation of itself.”
Liz Clarke and Beth Reinhard contributed to this report.