The Los Angeles Ethics Commission rejected Les Moonves’ $11,250 settlement with the city over information leaked to the powerful CBS CEO by an LAPD officer about sexual assault allegations.
The vote against Monfils was unanimous.
The Ethics Committee also voted 4-0 to “reject” a $2,500 settlement with former CBS Vice President Ian Metrose. In an agreement reached by city staff and his attorneys at the Sutton law firm, he admitted that he “violated city law by aiding and abetting the disclosure and misuse of confidential information.”
Earlier this month, Moonves agreed to pay a fine to Los Angeles for violating the city’s ethics code by “inducing a city official to abuse his position in order to create an advantage for Moonves.” Moonves, represented by Andrew Levander and Hartley MK West of Dechert LLP, sent a cashier’s check last week.
That advantage the CBS CEO had previously feared was inside knowledge and intelligence about a police report filed by Phyllis Golden Gottlieb in 2017.
At a time of growing corporate infighting over Moonves with Shari Redstone, Golden-Gottlieb, the former Lorimar-Telepictures executive who died in mid-2022, alleged that her then-colleague Moonves repeatedly assaulted her when they worked together in the 1980s with a People. He confirmed the 1986 incident. The following year, Golden Gottlieb was among a number of women who accused Moonves of such misconduct. Despite Moonves’ attempts to manipulate events and the CBS board, these accusations would lead to the longtime CBS executive being fired from his position in September 2018.
The city official in question was former LAPD Captain Corey Palka.
Having served as a security guard for Moonves on a number of occasions during his previous stint at the helm of CBS, Palka was also the commanding officer of the LAPD’s Hollywood Division in 2017. Former cop Flack called Metrose and left a voicemail in late November 2017 that said In part of the damning Golden-Gottlieb report – “It’s confidential, you know, but call me, and I can give you some details and let you know what the allegation is before it goes to the media or comes out.” “Metroz, who left CBS last year, went to CBS CCO Gil Schwartz, who died in 2020, who instructed him to take the information to Moonves.
After obtaining a copy of Golden-Gottlieb’s police report and circulating it among his top aides at CBS, Moonves requested a private meeting with Palka. The two met on November 25, 2017 to discuss what the LAPD would do with Golden-Gottlieb’s report and follow-up interviews. They texted several times after that, continuing to discuss Golden Gutep’s report and potential findings.
When Moonves left CBS under duress nearly a year later, Palka texted him: “I am deeply sorry for what happened. I will always stand with, and by.”
I pledge my loyalty to you.”
Since leaving CBS, Moonves has fought for nearly three years with Paramount Global, which he now runs, to obtain his $120 million severance package. In 2021, that battle ended with Moonves, who made about $69 million in 2016 and 2017 alone, failing to donate money to charity.
In 2022, New York Attorney General Letitia James revealed for the first time that the LAPD provided classified information to CBS executives as they attempted to manage the allegations against Moonves. As is almost always the case, this came to light in a follow-up money investigation. CBS executives allowed Schwartz, according to the NY AG report, to sell “millions of dollars” of CBS stock in 2018 before a wide array of sexual misconduct against Moonves became public in a scathing article in The New Yorker, Deadline, and elsewhere.
“These actions constitute insider trading and violated New York’s investor protection laws,” James said at the time. The Attorney General also disclosed a cumulative total settlement of $30.5 million with Moonves and CBS to end her office’s investigation.
In the first hour of today’s Ethics Commission meeting, suggestions for greater sanctions against Moonves and Mitrozzi, as well as the importance of the Los Angeles Secret Code of 1997, were raised by members of the public.
These opinions were actually two of the lowest overall comments.
Adopting a variety of voices, one citizen mocked the dead women who alleged sexual assault in the Moonves case. The same spokesman also described Monfils as “one of the most powerful people on the planet” and recommended that the fine imposed on Metrose be reduced to zero. Another speaker described the “corruption” of the LAPD and the city as “beyond shameful” and encouraging a “rape culture.” The spokesman condemned cases of sexual assault by police officers, and also called on the Ethics Commission to raise the maximum fine of $5,000 imposed on the “incredibly wealthy” Moonves and Metro.
With only one or two other topics touched upon, the Moonves and Metrose settlements were the most commented on by the public today.
The reduction in penalties for his “cooperation” with the city has been repeatedly criticized. One speaker criticized the commission for its “failure” to enact charter reform that would have allowed it to increase fines, among other things. When one speaker asked the panel to provide “high moral examples,” he compared Moonves to Donald Trump in his treatment of women and contempt for the law.
“You don’t have to honor the settlement agreement,” another speaker pleaded with commissioners at today’s meeting. “This is pocket change for men,” a spokeswoman added in her remarks, calling for the committee to show that this use of internal LAPD information and more “will not be tolerated.” The same speaker also pointed to the current situation where the LAPD is arresting and detaining anti-Scientologists protesters as an example of the attention the department is perceived to be paying to the wealthy and well-connected.