{"id":31914,"date":"2021-12-22T12:20:03","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T18:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=31914"},"modified":"2021-12-22T12:53:39","modified_gmt":"2021-12-22T18:53:39","slug":"court-upholds-former-producers-lawsuit-eric-ferguson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2021\/12\/22\/court-upholds-former-producers-lawsuit-eric-ferguson\/","title":{"rendered":"Court upholds former producer's lawsuit against Eric Ferguson"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Eric Ferguson<\/p><\/div>\n

A former assistant producer\u2019s lawsuit against Chicago radio personality Eric Ferguson over allegations of an \u201cunwelcome sexual relationship\u201d<\/a> during their employment at WTMX 101.9-FM<\/a> can proceed, according to a court ruling Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Kubasiak denied a motion by Ferguson\u2019s attorneys to dismiss the suit filed last May by Cynthia DeNicolo, who worked with Ferguson at the Hubbard Radio hot adult-contemporary station for 20 years before her job was eliminated in 2020.<\/p>\n

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Cynthia DeNicolo<\/p><\/div>\n

Ferguson left<\/a> The Mix after 25 years as top-rated morning host in October amid a chorus of allegations of sexual misconduct and abusive behavior toward female co-workers that began with DeNicolo's claims.<\/p>\n

From January until August 2004, Ferguson \u201ccoerced\u201d DeNicolo into performing oral sex about twice a month, according to the suit. After she ended the sexual relationship, Ferguson continued \u201cto torment DeNicolo by continuing to ask for sexual favors and constantly reminding her (in open and notorious ways) that he held the power over [her] job and would use that power to humiliate her and\/or to reinstate his demands for oral sex.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeNicolo's position was eliminated as part of a staff reduction prompted by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Hubbard Radio. The lawsuit claims Ferguson orchestrated her firing.<\/p>\n

In their motion to dismiss the suit, Ferguson\u2019s lawyers called it \u201ccompletely devoid of factual allegations\u201d and said Ferguson \u201cemphatically denies the existence of a sexual relationship with plaintiff as well as engaging in the other conduct alleged in the complaint.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to the Wednesday's ruling, Carmen D. Caruso, DeNicolo's attorney, said: \u201cWe look forward to trying Cynthia DeNicolo\u2019s case against Mr. Ferguson in open court, and we have no doubt the jury will know Cynthia is telling the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kubasiak gave Ferguson until January 12 to respond to DeNicolo\u2019s complaint. A report on the status of the case was set for January 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former assistant producer\u2019s lawsuit against Chicago radio personality Eric Ferguson over allegations of an \u201cunwelcome sexual relationship\u201d during their employment at WTMX 101.9-FM can proceed, according to a court ruling Wednesday. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Kubasiak denied a motion by Ferguson\u2019s attorneys to dismiss the suit filed last May by Cynthia DeNicolo,... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31914"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31917,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31914\/revisions\/31917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}