Recording Academy fires ousted CEO, citing investigations

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“The decision is despicable and, in due course, the Academy, it’s leadership and its attorneys will be held accountable under the law,” the statement said.

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Dugan’s ouster played out days before the academy’s most important night, the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that made no mention of her or her allegations of a rigged voting process for some of the ceremony’s top awards.

The academy said it had engaged in some settlement discussions with Dugan but opted to fire her instead, and will begin the search for a new CEO.

“We could not reward her with a lucrative settlement and thereby set a precedent that behaviour like hers has no consequence,” the academy’s executive committee wrote in a letter to members. “Our members and employees, and the entire music industry, deserve better than that.”

Dugan’s EEOC complaint alleged that Joel Katz, an influential music attorney and the academy’s general counsel, tried to woo her romantically and attempted to kiss her against her wishes during a dinner last year that had been presented as a business meeting. Katz said he “categorically and emphatically denies her version of that evening.”

Dugan said her ousting was also retaliation for calling out the culture of the academy, saying she learned as CEO that her predecessor, Neil Portnow, had left the post over a rape allegation, yet she was still expected to give him a lucrative consulting position. Portnow said Dugan’s assertions were “false and outrageous” and that he had been “completely exonerated” in an investigation.

The academy said Monday that it had conducted exhaustive investigations of the complaints made by Dugan and those made against her by others, including the academy’s Director of Administration Claudine Little, who said Dugan had been abusive and bullying as a boss, which Dugan denied.

“The investigation overwhelmingly confirmed the serious complaints that had been lodged against her by a multitude of academy staff members,” Tammy Hurt, vice chair of the academy’s National Board of Trustees, said in a statement. “The damage she has caused this organization is truly heartbreaking.”

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton.

Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press