Former Fox Sports reporter Julie Stewart-Binks levied sexual assault allegations in a lawsuit against the network on Friday.
Stewart-Binks, 38, filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles, claiming Fox Sports executive vice president Charlie Dixon “pushed her against a wall, pinned her arms,” and “tried to force his tongue into her mouth” following a January 2016 meeting at a hotel bar, according to a story in The Athletic.
In a statement to The Athletic regarding Stewart-Binks’ claims, a Fox Sports spokesperson said, “These allegations are from over eight years ago. At the time, we promptly hired a third-party firm to investigate and addressed the matter based on their findings.”
The story says Stewart-Binks met with Dixon at a hotel in Marina del Rey, Calif. to discuss her assignment for the 2016 Super Bowl, during which he allegedly told her, “You’re not funny, interesting or talented,” and that she was “not capable of handling big moments on TV.”
“The only way someone would watch you is if you got on top of this bar and took your top off,” he purportedly told her, adding, “You’re not hot enough to be a hot girl on TV.”
Stewart-Binks claims Dixon then pivoted, ordering two beers and urging her to come to his hotel room to drink them and see the view from his balcony — an offer she did not feel she could refuse.
When they stepped out onto the balcony, he “swiftly pushed her against the wall and pinned her arms to her side,” and with his body pressed against hers, he attempted to kiss Stewart-Binks, she alleges.
Stewart-Binks said that while she did not open her mouth, she claims Dixon “ignored her, continuing to press against her body and lick her closed mouth. While keeping one of her arms pinned, he moved his other arm from pressing her upper elbow against the wall to her body and towards her chest.”
She says she fled the room and disclosed the incident to a friend.
Believing her career was “very much hanging in the balance” after her run-in with Dixon — her contract was up for renewal after the Super Bowl — Stewart-Binks became “determined to prove that she was fun and belonged in FS1’s new regime.”
As part of an FS1 Super Bowl pop-up show, “Jason Whitlock’s House Party By the Bay,” she persuaded Patriots star Rob Gronkowski to give her a lap dance during a segment that went viral.
“I was told … that I was not capable of being able to do a moment like this on television,” Stewart-Binks said in the story. “And that I was not interesting, funny, talented, smart. And so I felt the need to prove that I was all in, and that I was not scared to do something like (the Gronkowski stunt).”
The following month, her contract was not renewed, ending a four-year run with the network.
Stewart-Binks currently works as a reporter for SNY and the PWHL and a host for the BetRivers Sportsbook Network, having gone through roles at networks like ESPN, Barstool Sports and CBC.
These allegations come weeks after Fox Sports hairstylist Noushin Faraji filed a workplace misconduct lawsuit against the company, claiming, among other things, Dixon had groped her and fired another staff member for refusing his sexual advances.
