A witness has stepped forward to back up a man’s claim that CNN talker Don Lemon sexually assaulted the man in a bar in the ritzy Hamptons east of New York City.
The accusation is the subject of a lawsuit filed on August 11 that accuses Lemon of getting a little handsy during an encounter at a bar in Sag Harbor. Lemon, the lawsuit alleges, put his hands down his own pants, said some lewd things, and more.
And now, the plaintiff’s boss who witnessed the event, Fox News reports, has come forward to back up the allegations.
The Encounter
The unwelcome encounter, the lawsuit alleges, occured in July 2018 when Dustin Hice, a barkeep at the Old Stove Pub in Sagponack, went out to tip a few with his boss, George Gounelas. The pair landed at Murf’s Backstreet Tavern, where Hice saw Lemon, and “being cordial,” offered to buy the network star a Lemon Drop cocktail.
Lemon, a homosexual who says he is engaged to a man, turned the offer down, the lawsuit alleges. But later, “Mr. Lemon walked towards Plaintiff and his colleagues inside of Murf’s.” And that, the lawsuit alleges, is when Lemon put the squeeze on Hice:
At such time, 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 into Plaintiff’s moustache under Plaintiff’s nose.
Mr. Lemon intensely pushed his fingers against Plaintiff’s face under Plaintiff’s nose, forcing Plaintiff’s head to thrust backward as Defendant repeatedly asked Plaintiff “Do you like p**sy or d**k?” While saying this, Mr. Lemon continued to shove his fingers into Plaintiff’s face with aggression and hostility.
Gounelas, the lawsuit says, was there and saw what happened when the evening went sour.
Lemon “Pretty Drunk”
In an interview with Fox News, Gounelas backed up the account and added some interesting details.
“Don Lemon has now come around the corner and is standing face to face with us,” he told Fox.
“There is a beam, a pole, in the place. Don’s standing up against the pole, face to face with Dustin, I turn around and I’m standing right there between the two of them,” Gounelas said. “He’s saying, ‘So you like me? Is that why you’re bothering me?’”
Hice responded, “Nah, man, I just wanted to say, ‘What’s up?’” according to Gounelas.
Gounelas told Fox News he couldn’t recall what Lemon said verbatim, but it was “along the lines of, ‘Do you like me? Is that why you’re bothering me, because you wanna f— me?’”
Gounelas said Lemon appeared “pretty drunk” when he confronted the duo at the watering hole.
“He put his hands down his pants, inside his board shorts, grabbed his [genitals], and then came out with two fingers and, like, clipped Dustin’s nose up and down with two fingers asking ‘do you like p—- or d—?’” Gounelas said.
Gounelas admitted laughing at his pal, who didn’t think the stunt was so funny. “Dustin was in this shock mode saying, ‘Bro, did that just happen? That was disgusting,’” Gounelas told Fox.
Gounelas said he isn’t sure if Lemon, who is openly gay, was being confrontational or simply flirting. “I guess it’s a little of both. If someone had done that to me, I probably would have punched him. But I think it might have been flirting. I think Dustin was more in shock…. If someone was flirting with me like that I’d say, ‘alright man I’m not gay,’” Gounelas said. “I wouldn’t go up to a girl like that. It could be his way of flirting.”
Gounelas also told Fox that he and others ridiculed Hice afterward. “Everybody knew Dustin and what happened to him,” Gounelas said. “Every time we went out, every bartender offered him a Lemon drop shot, making fun of him. He got some sh*t for it.”
The lawsuit cites that ridicule as one reason for filing it.
CNN backed Lemon by saying Hice posted hostile comments about the anti-Trump network on social media.
“Fredo” Cuomo
The Lemon incident was the second black eye for CNN last week. Earlier, CNN star Chris Cuomo exploded in a John-Gotti-like rage when a man approached him at a bar in New York’s Shelter Island, just across the water from Sag Harbor, and called him “Fredo,” the nickname of Michael Corleone’s weak, stupid brother in the Godfather novels and movies.
Cuomo unleashed a F-bomb-laced rant and threatened to throw the fellow down the stairs.
CNN approved of the unhinged rant.
Image of Don Lemon (left) and Chris Cuomo (right): Screenshot of CNN
