Former Fox Sports Host Alleges Exec Tried ‘Forcing’ Tongue in Her Mouth
Julie Stewart-Binks, a former host at Fox Sports, has filed a lawsuit alleging sexual assault at the hands of a network executive.
According to The Athletic, Stewart-Binks alleges in the suit filed Friday that Charlie Dixon, FS1’s executive vice president, assaulted her at a California hotel in January 2016.
The suit claims that Dixon verbally abused Stewart-Binks by criticizing her appearance and work performance at a hotel bar before the two went back to his hotel room to discuss her next assignment. In the hotel room, Stewart-Binks alleges in the filing that Dixon “swiftly pushed her against the wall and pinned her arms to her side.” He then “tried to force his tongue into her mouth,” according to her filing.
In the complaint, Stewart-Binks asserts that her mouth remained closed while Dixon licked it. Dixon then “moved his other arm from pressing her upper elbow against the wall to her body and towards her chest.”
According to the filing, Stewart-Binks said she went back to Dixon’s room after the disastrous meeting because she worried she might be fired from FS1 if she declined.
“These allegations are from over eight years ago. At the time, we promptly hired a third-party firm to investigate and addressed the matter based on their findings,” Fox Sports told The Athletic in a statement.
Following the incident, Stewart-Binks allegedly told an unnamed friend about Dixon’s assault.
She would later participate in an on-air bit with NFL player Rob Gronkowski, wherein he gave her a lap dance. According to the complaint, Stewart-Binks went along with the charade “to prove that she was fun and belonged in FS1’s new regime.” Her contract with the network was not renewed in March 2016.
In June 2017, during an investigation into Jamie Horowitz, another executive accused of misconduct, the 38-year-old recounted her experience with Dixon to a Fox human resources employee.
The entire ordeal led to Stewart-Binks getting “professional help,” and though Horowitz was fired, Dixon remains at the network.
The lawsuit against the network and Dixon comes on the heels of hairstylist Noushin Faraji’s own complaint against Dixon that alleges he started “rubbing her body and groping her buttocks” at a birthday party in 2017.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Fox Corp for comment.