Lawsuit: ESPN's Chris Berman left 'racially disparaging' voicemail for Jemele Hill

A.J. Perez | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Jemele Hill denies 'racially disparaging voicemail' from Chris Berman at ESPN A lawsuit filed on Sunday claimed that ESPN host Chris Berman left Jemele Hill an insulting voicemail, but on Monday, Hill publicly denounced the accusation.

Chris Berman allegedly left a “threatening and racially disparaging voicemail” for Jemele Hill in early 2016, according to the latest lawsuit filed by a former ESPN employee.

The 93-page sexual harassment lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Connecticut on Sunday on behalf of Adrienne Lawrence, and obtained by USA TODAY Sports. Lawrence is a lawyer who joined ESPN as a legal analyst in 2015 as part of a fellowship program. She was not retained after the fellowship concluded last year.

Lawrence listed several claims of sexual harassment made against ESPN staffers that had been previously detailed, although the alleged voicemail by Berman — who had been at ESPN since a few months after it launched in 1979 and grown into the network’s biggest personality — was new.

“After Hill notified executive Marcia Keegan (who oversaw Hill’s show His & Hers at the time and had been a senior director in HR) about the matter and forwarded the voicemail to her, nothing was done,” the lawsuit alleges. “Despite his continued and repeated misconduct toward women, Berman remains a celebrated and welcome ESPN employee.”

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"We conducted a thorough investigation of the claims Adrienne Lawrence surfaced to ESPN and they are entirely without merit," ESPN wrote in a statement to USA TODAY Sports. "Ms. Lawrence was hired into a two-year talent development program and was told that her contract would not be renewed at the conclusion of the training program. At that same time, ESPN also told 100 other talent with substantially more experience, that their contracts would not be renewed. The company will vigorously defend its position and we are confident we will prevail in court.”

The alleged voicemail predates Hill’s ascension as co-host of the 6 p.m. ET weekday SportsCenter. She announced in January she would step down from her hosting job to join The Undefeated, ESPN’s website dedicated to sports, race and culture.

In a tweet Monday evening, Hill wrote in part:

"A few years ago, I had a personal conflict with Chris Berman, but the way this conflict has been characterized is dangerously inaccurate. Chris never left any racially disparaging remarks on my voicemail and our conflict was handled swiftly and with the utmost professionalism."

The lawsuit follows Lawrence’s claims that ESPN was a hostile work environment for women in a complaint to the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities and then to The Boston Globe in a story published in December.

"We are proud to represent Adrienne Lawrence in this important lawsuit that sends a clear message to ESPN that it can no longer turn a blind eye to sexual harassment and retaliate when women like Ms. Lawrence stand up for themselves and assert their rights to be free from discrimination," Russell Yankwitt, one of Lawrence’s attorneys, said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports.

"We believe that justice will prevail, and that ESPN will finally be held accountable for its culture where women are routinely humiliated, degraded, and marginalized."

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