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LA ethics panel approves fine for former CBS exec Leslie Moonves over interference with LAPD investigation

Richard Winton and Dakota Smith, Los Angeles Times on

Published in News & Features

LOS ANGELES — Former CBS President Leslie Moonves will pay $15,000 to settle a Los Angeles city ethics complaint over his role in an alleged cover-up of sexual assault accusations against him.

The city’s Ethics Commission unanimously approved the settlement Wednesday after previously rejecting a proposal for $11,250 in fines as too low.

Under the settlement, in addition to paying the $15,000, Moonves admitted that he violated city law by interfering with a police investigation into the sexual assault allegations.

Representatives for Moonves didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The allegations involving the LAPD and Moonves have drawn comparisons to “L.A. Confidential,” the James Ellroy novel and subsequent movie, in which corrupt police officers protect powerful figures.

Then-Police Capt. Cory Palka allegedly worked with Moonves and other CBS executives to bury a complaint made to the LAPD by a former colleague, Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb, alleging that Moonves had sexually assaulted her in the 1980s, according to the ethics complaint.

 

Palka, who has since retired, was then head of the department’s Hollywood station and nicknamed “Capt. Hollywood” because of his hobnobbing with celebrities. He had known Moonves for nearly a decade after working Moonves’ security detail for the Grammy Awards.

Palka didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Moonves’ career as head of CBS eventually collapsed amid a widening sex scandal that came to light as part of the #MeToo movement. Moonves, who stepped down from CBS in September 2018, has denied harassing or assaulting women.

The ethics complaint detailed how on Nov. 10, 2017, Golden-Gottlieb drove to the Hollywood station and filed a report against Moonves for the alleged sexual assault that happened decades ago.

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