LAPD Chief Apologizes After Cop Covered-Up Moonves Assault

Les Moonves

Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore has apologized to the family of a former television executive who accused former CBS chief Leslie Moonves of sexual misconduct.

The L-A Times reports the chief’s apology came after disclosures that a former LAPD captain in 2017 shared information about Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb’s allegations with CBS executives, including Moonves.

The LAPD was rattled last fall amid accusations that the former commander, Cory Palka, provided special treatment to Moonves when he was in charge of the LAPD’s Hollywood division. Palka allegedly worked to cover up Golden-Gottlieb’s sexual assault report in 2017 and 2018, according to a November report from New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James.

On Thursday, Moore and other LAPD officials met with Golden-Gottlieb’s adult children and lawyer, Gloria Allred.

“Chief Moore ... updated them on the status of the investigation, and apologized to them personally for the breach of trust by our former command officer when he shared information of their mother’s crime report with CBS executives,” LAPD Capt. Kelly Muniz said in a statement Friday.

Jim Gottlieb and Cathy Weiss spoke fondly of their mother, who died last July, during a news conference Friday with Allred at her office in Los Angeles. Weiss said she was thankful that her mother didn’t live to see how her sexual assault complaint had been handled by the high-ranking LAPD officer.

Golden-Gottlieb

Weiss and her brother said they were pleased with their meeting with Moore and other LAPD officials.

“We feel that they are taking this matter very seriously,” Jim Gottlieb said. “The public in general, and especially people who file sexual assault complaints, need to have confidence that police will treat them as the victims they are without any hint of shaming, or worrying that their confidential report will be compromised in any way.”

In 2017, Golden-Gottlieb, then 81, accused Moonves of sexually assaulting her in the mid-1980s when they were colleagues at Lorimar Productions, the powerhouse television studio behind “Dallas” and “Knots Landing.” On Nov. 10, 2017, Golden-Gottlieb drove to the Hollywood station and filed a report. She checked a box on the form that indicated that she wanted the information to be kept confidential.