Another Philadelphia TV News Anchor Spat Hits the Courts
Warring former news anchors at Philadelphia television stations are creating a litigation boom for at least one local law firm.
In the latest lawsuit, filed yesterday in Pennsylvania Common Pleas Court, ex-NBC10 anchor Lori Delgado, 28, says she quit her job because of fear for her safety and her husband’s safety after alleged threatening actions by her former co-anchor, Vince DeMentri, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. In documents attached to Delgado’s filing, DeMentri says the two had a more than two-year consensual “romantic affiliation.”
However, DeMentri, 44, who is pursuing an expected defamation case against NBC10, contends “This is nothing but a smokescreen. What is alleged is laughable and an outright lie,” the article continues. He filed a sex-discrimination complaint with the State Human Relations Commission in July, contending that he was fired, but Delgado was not disciplined, after NBC10 learned that they had had an affair.
DeMentri is represented by Paul Rosen of Spector Gadon & Rosen, who chairs the law firm’s board. He contends that both NBC10 and Delgado interfered with his client’s contract.
This litigation follows another legal war featuring two former CBS3 coanchors:
As discussed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post Larry Mendte pleaded guilty in federal court there in August to intentionally accessing the private e-mail accounts of his then co-anchor, Alycia Lane.
She has filed a defamation suit against her former employer, and Rosen, who has also been representing Lane, has contended that Mendte acted from jealousy over her soaring career when he snooped into her e-mail and allegedly used private information he found there to help get her fired.
