The Jets and a former team vice president are trading lawsuits amid allegations of sexual harassment and subsequent claims of a conspiracy to have team president Hymie Elhai’s reputation ruined and fired.
Elaine Chen, the team’s former vice president of finance, is suing the Jets, claiming she was unjustly fired in response to the sexual harassment allegations against Elhai.
According to the lawsuit, which was obtained by NorthJersey.com, an anonymous email was sent in July to several people inside Jets leadership, claiming that Elhai had sent inappropriate messages to women inside the organization.
One of the people the email was sent to was Larry Fitzpatrick, Chen’s husband and the team’s former vice president of ticket sales.
Fitzpatrick was also fired by the Jets.
According to the lawsuit, Chen said the Jets’ official reason for firing her was for failing “to put the company’s interest at the forefront of [her] decision making when faced with a personal conflict of interest.” She claims, though, that the Jets fired her solely because she was married to Fitzpatrick.
Chen’s lawsuit contends that the Jets’ investigation was not into the allegations, but rather into finding out who sent the email and “targeting anyone who supported the allegations.”
The lawsuit claims that Fitzpatrick was “interrogated” about the email and that he did not initially disclose the harassment over fears for his job.
Chen claimed she did not have any “first-hand” knowledge of the harassment and was not involved in the email.
The Jets, however, say they conducted a thorough investigation into the claims against Elhai, and say they are “categorically false.”
They are alleging that Chen was involved in a conspiracy to oust Elhai with false allegations.
“The allegations made against Mr. Elhai were taken seriously and investigated thoroughly in accordance with organization policy, and involved third-party investigative measures,” Eric Gelfand, the executive vice president of communications said. “That investigation revealed the truth, with a disturbing twist: the allegations of harassment were not only baseless, but the email at the center of the allegations was part of a deliberate and unlawful conspiracy of then-current and former Jets employees, including Ms. Chen and her husband, Mr. Fitzpatrick.”
The Jets plan on filing countersuits alleging defamation and libel, Gelfand said.
The Jets say that Chen and Fitzpatrick collaborated with others on the email that was sent to Jets leadership.
They say that Fitzpatrick lied about his role in sending the email and that he deleted more than 4,000 text messages in an attempt to obstruct the Jets’ investigation.
They say those text messages implicate Chen in the plot.
The Jets claim a former employee referenced in Chen’s suit has admitted that the allegations against Elhai had “no factual basis” and that he “worked in concert with Mr. Fitzpatrick to facilitate the email.”
Elhai has been in the Jets organization for 26 years, with this being his seventh as president.
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