Former Grammy Boss Facing Accusations

The former head of the Grammy Awards was sued on Wednesday by a woman who said he drugged and raped her in a New York hotel room in 2018.

The NY Times reports the suit, filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, accuses Neil Portnow, who stepped down as chief executive of the Recording Academy in 2019, of sexual battery, and accuses the academy — the nonprofit group behind the Grammys — of negligence.

Neil Portnow

The suit does not name the woman, but it describes her as an instrumentalist from outside the United States who once performed at Carnegie Hall. The court papers include redacted correspondence she had with the academy in 2018 regarding her complaint.

The case harks back to a tumultuous period in the Grammys’ recent history, when Mr. Portnow left the institution after saying that women in music should "step up" to get greater recognition in the industry. 

His successor, Deborah Dugan, was abruptly terminated in what she called retaliation for accusing the organization of a range of abuses, including a cover-up related to the allegation made in the new suit. Those incidents shook the Recording Academy and the wider music industry, but the woman who accused Portnow had been publicly silent until now.