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CNN evening news host Don Lemon is being sued by a man claiming the host assaulted and harassed him last summer at a Hamptons bar, reports and court documents say.
According to Mediaite, the suit was filed Sunday by Dustin Hice, who alleges that in July 2018, Lemon attacked him at a Sag Harbor, N.Y., bar called Murf’s. As a result Hice is seeking unspecified damages for “emotional pain and suffering.”
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Hice who was working as a bartender at another local bar at the time, said he approached Lemon at Murf’s one evening after recognizing him. He says he “tried to get Mr. Lemon’s attention and offered to buy Mr. Lemon a drink,” but the journalist declined, stating he was “just trying to have a good time.”
That should have been the end of it, but Hice says later in the evening it was Lemon who approached him.
“Mr. Lemon, who was wearing a pair of shorts, sandals, and a t-shirt, put his hand down the front of his own shorts, and vigorously rubbed his genitalia, removed his hand and shoved his index and middle fingers in Plaintiff’s moustache and under Plaintiff’s nose,” the suit says.
The suit then goes on to claim Lemon repeatedly shoved his fingers in Hice’s face while asking, “Do you like pussy or dick?”
The bartender says he left the bar feeling “shocked and humiliated,” but CNN has come to Lemon’s defense with claims of their own that the registered Republican has filed the suit with ulterior motives.
“The plaintiff in this lawsuit has previously displayed a pattern of contempt for CNN on his social media accounts,” a CNN spokesperson told the news site in a statement. “This claim follows his unsuccessful threats and demands for an exorbitant amount of money from Don Lemon. Don categorically denies these claims and this matter does not merit any further comment at this time.”