A former TV producer claims she was sacked after she complained about working with a ‘pervy’ cameraman during an interview with flamboyant rapper Nicki Minaj.
Tameika Dorman is suing Black Entertainment Television for allegedly firing her when she protested against being made to work with Derek Clarke last November – and for being pregnant.
In a lawsuit filed at the Bronx Supreme Court, Miss Dorman claims her bosses told her she wouldn’t have to work with him again after he allegedly filmed up her miniskirt the previous year.
She accuses him of sexually harassing her when the pair were working together on a show she was producing and hosting in February 2009.
Miss Dorman claims they were editing the program together when he kept repeatedly showing her the footage, taken as she walked up the stairs in a short skirt.
In the suit, her lawyer claims: ‘During this editing session, Clarke subjected Ms Dorman to acts of sexual harassment by repeatedly re-playing video footage of her rear-end.’
According to the lawsuit, when Miss Dorman asked him why he kept replaying the video, he ‘grabbed and repeatedly rubbed his crotch, began to moan, and said it was because he loved her butt, that she was sexy and that she did not know what he was going to do to her.’
Miss Dorman ran out of the room sobbing, and immediately reported the cameraman to the network’s management, who promised her she wouldn’t have to work with him again.
But last November, when Miss Dorman was pregnant, she was again made to work with Mr Clarke, this time to film an interview with Minaj.
She complained to her boss, but claims she was removed from her position of producing the BET Hip-Hop Honors show and fired shortly afterwards.
Now Miss Dorman is seeking unspecified damages from the network for retaliation, gender and pregnancy discrimination.
She told the New York Daily News: ‘I’m now pregnant and without a job, and I don’t know what I’m going to do.’
Her attorney Ken Thompson said: ‘We will prove at trial that BET fired Ms Dorman because she had the guts to stand up against sexual harassment.’
