Monday, October 21, 2013

LA Radio: Ex-staffers Counter Sue Piolin

Eddie Sotelo
Legal wrangling between Spanish-language radio star Eduardo "Piolín" Sotelo and six former staff members dialed up this week with new allegations of harassment and boorish behavior, according to the LA Times.

The former staffers worked with Sotelo when he hosted his wildly popular "Piolín por la Mañana" program on Univision Radio. However, the staffers were let go long before Sotelo's program was abruptly canceled by the Spanish-language media conglomerate on July 22.

Sotelo sued the group of ex-staff members in Los Angeles County Superior Court in late August, alleging they had banded together to try to extort as much as $4.9 million from him. In response, lawyers for the group filed a lengthy motion on Oct. 15, asking a judge to strike Sotelo's lawsuit.

Friday marked Sotelo's return to radio with a new four-hour program on SiriusXM called "El Show de Piolín." After Univision severed ties with Sotelo, SiriusXM leaped to sign him to be the centerpiece of the company's effort to attract more Latino listeners.

In their motion, the six former workers alleged that as Sotelo's Univision career began to soar -- around 2006 -- his behavior toward staff members turned increasingly abusive. He allegedly humiliated workers by calling them derogatory names, licking and biting them, rubbing his body against theirs, and grabbing his genitals.

"Sotelo bit two of the staffer defendants so hard that they had visible marks on their shoulders for days," the motion said.

The group tolerated the alleged behavior, the filing said, because they feared they would lose their jobs if they complained.

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