The closely watched and highly salacious sexual assault case against CNN host Don Lemon has been dropped according to reporting by Puck News co-founder Dylan Byers and a statement from his accuser admitting he misremembered what happened. Lemon’s legal team lashed out at media outlets for ever daring to report on the allegation, calling it a “case-study in unethical and uninformed reporting.”
According to a statement from accuser Dustin Hice, he claims he misremembered the events of the night in question and seemed to be withdrawing his lawsuit.
“After a lot of inner reflection and a deep dive into my memory, I have come to realize that my recollection of the events that occurred on the night in question when I first met CNN anchor Don Lemon were not what I thought they were when I filed this lawsuit,” he said.
HICE statement: “After a lot of inner reflection and a deep dive into my memory, I have come to realize that my recollection of the events that occurred on the night in question when I first met CNN anchor Don Lemon were not what I thought they were when I filed this lawsuit."
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) May 2, 2022
Hice’s accusations were particularly graphic. As his court filing described them last year:
"[Lemon] 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 into Plaintiff's mustache and under Plaintiff's nose," according to the lawsuit, filed Aug. 11, 2019 in Suffolk County Court.
"Lemon intensely pushed his fingers against Plaintiff’s face under Plaintiff’s nose, forcing Plaintiff’s head thrust backward as Defendant repeatedly asked Plaintiff ‘Do you like p---y or d--k?’ While saying this, Mr. Lemon continued to shove his fingers into Plaintiff’s face with aggression and hostility," the suit alleged.
“Thankfully, Mr. Hice was finally able to access his memory and recollect the correct version of events on the night when he approached Don Lemon,” Lemon’s lawyers said in the opening line of their statement.
The statement went on to lament how “this has been a long and difficult journey for Don” and suggested the accusations have racist and homophobic roots. “Unfortunately, being a gay Black man in the media, he has had to deal with these sorts of attacks for quite sometime,” the statement claimed.
Full statement from Lemon’s attorney: pic.twitter.com/puybsiohBp
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) May 2, 2022
Curious. Does that mean Lemon has had other such accusations leveled against him that haven’t been reported?
The statement closed was an attack on the media that covered the story. “I hope that many in the media have learned their lesson on misreporting the facts and jumping to conclusions,” the law team huffed, despite admitting earlier in the statement they advised Lemon to be quiet. “The reporting on this story by many outlets has been a case-study in unethical and uninformed reporting.”
Byers suggested that this part of the statement was “likely referring to Fox News, Megyn Kelly who gave it oxygen.”
In his interview with Kelly, Hice said he was having a difficult time getting witnesses to testify because people were scared of Lemon since celebrities like him wield a lot of power in the Hamptons.
It's rather hypocritical of Lemon to decry reporting on apparently false accusations against him when he was all-in on the lies against Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
