Weeks before the case was set the go to trial, the man who accused Don Lemon of sexual assault is changing his story. Or rather, he’s suggesting the story never happened in the first place.
New Jersey bartender Dustin Hice dropped his sexual assault lawsuit against the CNN anchor yesterday, saying that “after a lot of inner reflection and a deep dive into my memory” he realized he actually got the whole thing wrong.
In a statement, Hice said his “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.”
Hice alleged that Lemon approached him in 2019 and “vigorously rubbed his [Lemon’s] genitalia, removed his hand and shoved his index and middle fingers in Plaintiff’s moustache and under Plaintiff’s nose.”
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He reportedly wanted $1.5 million from the CNN anchor.
After Hice announced he was dropping the case, Lemon’s attorney released a statement calling the whole thing “a crass money grab from its inception.”
“This has been a long and difficult journey for Don. Out of respect for the judicial process and my advice, he has had to remain silent in the face of a malicious and vulgar attack on his character.”
“Unfortunately, being a gay Black man in the media, he has had to deal with these sorts of attacks for quite some time.”
Hice dropped the suit just a few weeks before the civil assault jury trial was scheduled to begin, and shortly after a federal judge ordered he pay Lemon $77,000 in attorneys fees for failing to comply with court rules.
bachy
For me, all of these bogus “sexual assault accusations” have really put a damper on making new friends, especially with women. I used to be much more casual about asking someone new out for a let’s-get-to-know-each-other coffee or a lunch. But these recent years, I’ve become increasingly inhibited. It’s way too easy for a calculating con artist to shake down an innocent person with a trumped up sexual assault accusation. Especially between men and women in the uncertain, post-pandemic #MeToo era, casual friendships are a minefield.
Donston
No body is trying to con sweetie.
Donston
Also, how about it makes it difficult for people who actually deal with sexual harassment or sexual assault? Nobody cares about your non friendships.
Kangol2
I’m glad the lying accuser has recanted. So many people leapt on the bandwagon to attack Don Lemon, but unlike many others who’ve been accused of similar assaults, this one seemed flimsy and was not part of a pattern. That $77,000 will make this Hice creep rue the day he made the accusation.
GlobeTrotter
It’s really frightening how one single accusation can completely ruin your life and reputation. Media organizations, especially those on the right, also rarely report when accusers retract their stories. I hope Lemon countersues for damages.
Many years ago I worked on a team of about 10 individuals. We each had our own office but we all shared a network printer located in the hallway. We also had a support staff of assistants that scheduled our appointments, handled inquires, etc. We were always running into each other at the printer in the hallway, and just to alleviate the work stress we would always tell little jokes and laugh ourselves silly. One day we got this new assistant, she was maybe 19 or 20 years old and painfully shy. So to make her feel at home on our team, I’d giver her a friendly smile and then greet her whenever I saw her at the printer. It took a while, but after a few weeks she’d smile back and we would have some harmless smalltalk. I would even crack a joke or two, just like we all did with each other. She’d laugh shyly and sometimes even she even made a funny comment or two.
One day I was “summoned” by my boss to her office. I didn’t think much of it. The minute I entered her office and closed the door, she immediately started berating me for “sexually harassing” the new employee. “I did what?!?!” I asked her. She then informed me that the new assistant made a complaint to HR about being constantly and sexually harassed by me. She was apparently afraid of being left in the same room with me out of fear that I might sexually harass her. Things were so bad, that she was having nightmares and sleepless nights. Her mental health was so affected that she could no longer perform her job and was now on sick leave. My jaw dropped to the floor as I was listening to the accusations, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing!
It took several weeks of meetings with HR, meetings with the CEO, discussions in my work group, dozens of emails and lengthy statements to finally clear my name. My co-workers were so incensed they wrote a letter of support on my behalf. I was on the brink of disclosing that it would have never occurred to me to harass her because of my sexuality, but on second thoughts, my sexuality is my own business and I didn’t want that to be the subject of further gossip. I eventually quit that company after a few months, for even though they concluded that I did nothing wrong, I couldn’t escape the veil of suspicion – or maybe that was my imagination. That’s the problem, you simply never know!
SFMike
I’ve had the same sort of experiences over the years involving neurotic women in the work place and I have always been openly gay. I no longer try to be nice to female fellow employees just civil and even a lack of attention can trigger these latent mental cases.
miller2900
….I would have sued the shit out of that nut job AND the dam employer too!!! Trash rumors like that can follow you for a long time from employer to employer…. sometimes without you even being aware of it. Especially if your career is in corporate America with an employer that has offices coast to coast in a popular industry like property developers or the studios. Everybody knows everybody… or someone that does! depending on what type of career/employment you have. In this day and age no one can afford to be “nice” and or “forgiving”! You MUST hold every last individual and corporate entity responsible by going for the wallets!!! If I had been you Globe Trotter, I’m afraid my disgust and resulting explosive reaction to the whack job’s false accusations would have gotten my fired. And to think people wonder why some men end up hating women!
bachy
@Globe, @SFMike: I’m sorry you were subjected to these bizarre situations. They’re exactly the kind of horrific encounters that make the current zeitgeist something of a minefield. On the perimeters of real sexual misconduct, there appears to be a new, free-floating form of sexual/social anxiety that involves imagined harassment. As your experiences have shown, there is good reason why men who work and socialize around women have become increasingly cautious.
foxtrot.uniform.charly.kilo
Yeah, or he just paid him a shit ton of money to go away…which it seems like what happened.
And shame on you, what happened to believe all women? Maybe your off hand jokes and creeper smile freaked her out.
Creamsicle
Oh y’know when you just have a little memory whoopsie-daisy and fabricate a sexual assault story with specific demeaning and graphic details? Well sometimes you just need to stroll theough your memory palace to recind your false accusation because it didn’t get settled out of court, like your grifter-ass thought it would be.
foxtrot.uniform.charly.kilo
Or don lemon did a stroll to the bank to get the bush money
tjack47
Due process is dead, still.
Rivcuban
Something Fox News won’t be reporting.
SDR94103
we all knew Don wouldn’t do this.
Inspector 57
Oh, really? The fact that he makes a spectacle of getting progressively more drunk on live TV every NYE makes me think there’s more to him than his well-dressed, intelligent, seemingly sensitive “Credible TV Anchor” persona. I’m not saying that persona might not be a part of his actual being, but it doesn’t rule out other possible sides of him, either. Most people are three-dimensional. Most people aren’t perfect. Most guys his age get horny.
RyanMBecker
Inspector 57,
First of, Lemon never denied behaving silly, especially around New Year Eve. His social media has plenty of photos of him having fun, and someone even posted a photo of him grabbing his crotch. But that’s not the issue. Hice never claimed that Lemon was drunk. He says that Lemon assaulted him out of the blue, after he offered to buy Lemon a drink.
RyanMBecker
ADDENDUM: Hice changed his story for the Megyn Kelly interview. In one of the first interviews by a local Hamptons newspaper, he said that Lemon wasn’t drunk, as if to emphasize that Lemon assaulted him willingly and consciously.
shaunpaul1234
Im gay, dem
Cnt stand don lemon, anderson cooper, cuomo, th cnn clown car
Hell anderson and lemon arent even good enough for people to pay to listen to their diatribe!!
Think cnn+!! They attracted NOBODY to the streaming service!!
Cooper having a show on setting up a baby schedule, OH PLEASE!!
If u EVER WANT EITHER OF THEM TO SHUT UP, HOLD UP A MIRROR TO THM!!
I call thm the cnn CLOWN CAR, i also CNT STAND, the fox clown car!!
CNN NEWS, NEWS ONLY, IS FINE
SAME WTH FOX NEWS, NEWS ONLY, IS FINE
FOR YEARS, ive bn telling repubs, shiw me a factually incorrect article, bever mind wht they r not saying, and th opinion parts, they cnt point out any
Just like ive said the same thing about fox news the news part, one cnt find facts wrong in their articles
Yes fox news has its head up th repubs ass, BUT
CNN AND MSNBC HAVE THEIR HEADS UP TH DEMS ASSESS
THEY R BOTH BIASED NEWS STATIONS!!
I wish th accusations were proven in court, but, they wnt b, so hes innocent
He just a noisy, preachy little condescending news person!!
Ok!!
Luckily, CNN is going to eventually, switching to straight news only, and HOPEFULLY, Cooper and Lemon will b GONE
[email protected]
As a gay man who has always loved seducing str8 men and teaching them the joy of gay sex (with considerable success), Don Lemon can assault me when ever he wants.
[email protected]
I have never met a gay man as fervently right wing as you appear to be from you comment.
Do you enjoy hanging out with evangelicals and other right wing Republicans ?
How do you deal with their hatred of anyone who is gay? Or are you still in the closet?
Blaktarn
Your rant is as mindless as your claim to being a Democrat and has nothing to do with the topic of the story. You got your 15 seconds, now go back to your pillow talk with Cruz, Trump and Fox friends…
RyanMBecker
Try educating yourself before typing drivel. You’re clearly clueless about what caused the demise of CNN+. It has little to do with ratings or subscribers. After the merger, Discovery decided to have one streaming service for all its contents instead of one for CNN and one for Discovery. So they shelved CNN+ to focus on a new streaming service that will incorporate all their media. Insiders day that the new service will include shows from CNN+, which will likely include Cooper. Educate yourself.
shaunpaul1234
Ive NEVER BN ONE TO AUTOMATICALLY SUPPORT SOMEBODY BECAUSE THEY SUCK DICK ALSO
ITT SEEMS THT TOO MANY GAY PEOPLE SUPPORT SOMEONE AND THEY CN NEVER B CRITICIZED, because they suck dick also!!
Just cause someone sucks dick, tht has NOTHING TO DO WTH HOW THEY ARE AS A PERSON, and tht dosent make them off limits to criticism!!
Like that SELF-CENTERED SWIMMER WHO WAS 450 as a MAN, but now as a woman, with some of, make tht TRANS-WOMAN, her mass from whn she was a man left-over, is unevening th playing field against biological woman, and breaking records on th womans swim team
She is ARROGANT, and COMPLETELY SELF-CENTERED!! Damn Her!!!
miller2900
…. dam, you are one miserable individual!
humble charlie
Remember, if you’re going on a date with Don Lemon or frequenting a bar etc. that he frequents, bring some anti-bacterial wipes.
humble charlie
by the way, I don’t think he was sexually assaulted but I do believe he met someone who thought his shit didn’t stink.
Dymension
Huh? Bad memory? What. Ever.
RyanMBecker
Yeah. Apparently he and his boss had some kind of mind meld since his boss claimed to have witnessed the assault. I like to see how his bad memory story explains that. The two liars need to be bankrupted with a massive defamation suit.
Donston
And of course the comment section is full of messy queens who saw this story as an opportunity to push misogynistic or gay-shaming or right-leaning views.
Toofie
Ugh, it’s pretty sad, isn’t it?
foxtrot.uniform.charly.kilo
In every comment section, there is always this one person.
You see one comment that you disagree with, act exasperated and as if you are above it, and regurgitated the tired old “right-wing, homophobic, misogynist, racist, etc. etc.” rhetoric that you learned in some queer theory class or reading white guilt.
Spare me with your hollow interpretation of other people’s opinions.
jkb
I knew it was bs from the start. After merely interacting with this liar, I would want to take a shower.
scotty
wishful thinking , perhaps? i get that way with ezra miller but damn i would never make stuff up like that. EM get your sweet ass to Vancouver Island, in a flash eh?
RyanMBecker
It’s shocking that anyone bought his story in the first place — but sure enough, I saw many Don Lemon haters, including several gay ones — support this liar. The story made no sense. He always claimed that he wasn’t a fan of Lemon, yet for some inexplicable reason, he offered to buy Lemon a drink. He had a bartender’s salary, yet he was going to buy millionaire Don Lemon a drink for no reason at all? Really?
The fact that he posted very anti-CNN comments makes it even more unbelievable. Not only wasn’t he a fan, but he vocally hated Lemon’s employers. Plus he was a self-professed straight Christian (it was part of his lawsuit to explain how he felt “violated”). Despite all this, he offered a drink to an openly gay man that he didn’t really like. REALLY???
Plus, despite it being a busy time at the restaurant, he couldn’t come up with any witnesses besides his boss and coworkers. The story is so unbelievable that I’m shocked that he even attempted a lawsuit. I know that he and his accomplices were hoping for a settlement or hush money, but to actually file a civil suit takes stupidity to new heights. I’m glad that the court ordered him to pay $70K, but I think he needs to be punished much more.
RyanMBecker
Lemon and CNN should file a massive defamation suit against him, and give the money to a gay charity. There’s no way Lemon would lose since it’s pretty clear that Hice had a reckless disregard for the truth, and was out to defame Lemon with malice.
RyanMBecker
His new story makes no sense since his boss (and some co-workers) backed up his story. Is Hice claming that both he and his boss had some kind of shared memory failure, where they both had the same false vision? Both he and his boss needs to be sued for defamation with malicious intent. Even if Lemon doesn’t need the money, he needs to set an example to order other gays and celebrities.
johncp56
Come on, first as a bar tender you know drunk people get out of control even a little, and you were able to leave, and was this done in the bar in front of others??? wow
RyanMBecker
At 5:39 in the video, Hice proves that he’s homophobic and racist. And delusional. He tells Megyn Kelly that Don Lemon is protected because he is black and gay. The truth, of course, is that both gay men and black men have stereotypical reputations of being sexual predators. So instead of being protected from such allegations, they are actually often assumed guilty until proven innocent.
Invader7
Another gop /republican GRIFTER /LIAR con artist.. They’re everywhere these days…
charmin88
Honestly I think both him and his boss are secretly gay and saw Don Lemon and ordered him a drink and was WAY to persistent to get Don to drink it. Thus giving me a sketchy vibe they spiked it and was hoping it made him incoherent to take him somewhere and humiliate him or worse rape. But since he left without accepting their advances on insisting he drink with them. The guys would of pretended they didn’t know what happened that night either if they would of been able to do something to Don. I dont take offered drinks from nobody especially ones that you didn’t see get poured easy way to become a victim
linniewantstoknow
Maybe I’m the only one thinking this way but, Mr. Hice should have a defamation law suit filed against him. When will people like Mr. Hice get the message that you cannot do things like this and think it’s alright, then go on to say “Oh I got it wrong.”
For some reason, I believe that this man was put up to this and when things didn’t pan out, someone got cold feet. People like Mr. Hice make it bad for people with legit claims, because of that he should be dealt with and dealt severely.
foxtrot.uniform.charly.kilo
It’s funny, they seem to be dropping the case mainly because the accuser had some social media comments that were anti-gay in the past…
This proves don lemon didn’t act like a smug, self-centred, well known person who looks every bit the part of someone who would do that…?