Former Grammys CEO Mike Greene has been accused of sexual assault in a new lawsuit filed Thursday in California.
The complaint was made public in a Los Angeles court by Terri McIntyre, who alleges she was “forced to endure pervasive, incessant and routine sexual harassment and/or sexual assault” from Greene when she was the Los Angeles chapter executive director at the Recording Academy from 1994 to 1996.
In 2002, Greene resigned after an investigation into several harassment and assault allegations, as well as mismanaged funds.
McIntyre’s attorney told the Los Angeles Times, “Charles Michael Greene is a very powerful, perverse predator. This suit exposes the culture that permitted him and the Academy to profit for years. It also spotlights the perilous practice of NDAs and hush money employed by the Academy and deployed by the entire music industry that exploits and silences victims.”
McIntyre is suing Greene for sexual battery, battery and assault and is suing the Academy for negligent hiring, supervision and retention, negligence, harassment on the basis of sex/gender and failure to take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment.
File/Recording Academy Pres./CEO Michael Greene (right) with N.Y. Mayor Michael Bloomberg backstage before a press conference to announce the 45th Annual Grammy Awards will return to New York City in 2003, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. April 3, 2002. (Getty)
Greene has not responded to media requests for comment.
A rep for the Recording Academy told Rolling Stone “in light of pending litigation, the Academy declines to comment on these allegations, which occurred nearly 30 years ago. Today’s Recording Academy has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to sexual misconduct and we will remain steadfast in that commitment.”
The complaint against Greene marks the second lawsuit against the Recording Academy and its former executives in the past month.
The legal action comes in the wake of several other high-profile sexual assault lawsuits against powerful men in the music industry, including fellow ex-Grammys head Neil Portnow, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Guns n Roses’ Axl Rose, and Jamie Foxx, as Entertainment Weekly notes.
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