Andrea Mackris
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Andrea Mackris (born 1971) was a FOX News television producer in the United States who accused cable talk show host Bill O'Reilly of sexual harassment. She alleged both of the legally cognizable types of sexual harassment, quid pro quo and hostile work environment.
On October 13, 2004, after settlement talks had failed, Mackris filed suit against O'Reilly and FOX News in the New York Supreme Court (in that state, the "Supreme Court" is a trial court) for $60 million dollars in damages that exceed the jurisdictional allowances of the court.
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[edit] The allegations
In filing her complaint Mackris produced what she said were quotes of O’Reilly calling her on the phone and telling her about the sexual practices they might engage in. The most widely publicized of these was a scenario in which they would be in the shower and he would massage her with a loofah, a scrubby sponge. Then, as he went on talking, O'Reilly mistakenly referred to it as "the falafel thing." Falafels are made of wet, mashed chickpeas. "Falafel" became a short-hand reference to the affair for O'Reilly's critics.
The complaint detailed a number of other sexual conversations and encounters between O'Reilly and Mackris [1] [2]. It also detailed several bizarre events, such as O'Reilly threatening radio talk show host Al Franken that he would "get what was coming to him" [3], and that any woman who crossed him or Fox would be destroyed.
[edit] The response
Fox and O'Reilly responded aggressively to Mackris's allegations. On October 15, 2004, Fox sought judicial permission to fire Mackris, and sought to convince the court that the firing was not illegal retribution for the sexual harassment lawsuit. On October 19, 2004, Mackris filed an amended complaint, adding further details to her complaints of sexual harassment, noting that O'Reilly had not denied her claims of sexual harassment but only responded with procedural arguments, and asked for further damages for what were described as illegal retaliatory actions taken against her by O'Reilly, Fox News, and the similarly owned newspaper, The New York Post.
On October 21, 2004, both sides agreed to a one-week postponement of legal proceedings, leading to speculation that settlement negotiations would resume. Press reports had said there had been prior discussions of a potential settlement of about US$2 million, but no formal offer had been made. Mackris' attorney, Benedict P. Morelli—one of Manhattan's leading employment discrimination lawyers—had said that the figure was too low to be accepted.
Rep. Mark B. Cohen of Philadelphia, an attorney, and Democratic Pennsylvania state legislator familiar with sexual harassment law, said, "If proven, the allegations in her complaint spell trouble for Bill O'Reilly and the corporate defendants. They document O'Reilly's knowledge of the illegality of his actions, his knowledge of her disinclination to participate with him, and her persistent reminders to him of their employer/employee relationship. The fact that she returned to The O'Reilly Factor after a period of absence does not indicate her acquiescence in O'Reilly's actions to her in and of itself: Civil rights law is clear that sexual involvement is never a permissible condition of employment."
[edit] The settlement
On October 28, 2004, O'Reilly and Mackris reached an out of court settlement, and dropped all charges against each other. No immediate announcements were made about Mackris' future work with O'Reilly, the amount of the settlement, or any plans for a public explanation or apology by O'Reilly. Information released by Nielsen Media Research showed that O'Reilly's television viewership on October 25, 2004 had hit 3.7 million, near the all-time high.
[edit] After the settlement
In 2005 Mackris purchased a condo in New York City's Upper West Side neighborhood for $809,000. Proceeds from the settlement were probably used for the down payment, given that Mackris's former salary of $93,000 per year was about half the down payment [4]. Estimates in the press suggested Mackris was paid somewhere in the $2 million to $10 million range to silence her accusations. One year later, in May 2006, Mackris spent another $430,950 on an adjacent unit in the building, according to deed-transfer records.[5]
