Les Moonves Accuser's Family Speaks Out

The children of the late TV executive Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb, whose claims of sexual misconduct against Les Moonves helped lead to his resignation as CEO of CBS in 2018, spoke out on Jan. 20 about the Los Angeles Police Department’s mishandling of her confidential police report.

They and their attorney, Gloria Allred, said they met the previous day with LAPD Chief Michel Moore and an internal affairs investigator about since-retired Captain Cory Palka, who is now being probed by the department and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office for sharing a copy of Golden-Gottlieb’s report about Moonves, which she’d filed in late 2017 at LAPD’s Hollywood Division.

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In November 2022, the New York Attorney General’s office announced CBS and Moonves would pay $30.5 million for concealing sexual assault allegations, misleading investors about his misconduct and related insider trading. The office also detailed how top CBS executives conspired for months to counter Golden-Gottlieb’s claim once they learned of it from Palka, who’d previously done off-duty work for the corporation.

In the summer of 2018, Golden-Gottlieb, who died in July 2022 at the age of 86, publicly accused Moonves of sexual misconduct decades earlier while both were executives at Lorimar-Telepictures in the 1980s. She described repeated episodes in which he exposed himself, attacked her and later retaliated against her. Golden-Gottlieb’s assertions, along with those of other women who made similar claims against him, resulted in Moonves’ departure from CBS.

Allred explained she’d asked for and received an apology for Golden-Gottlieb’s adult children from Chief Moore, who she said appears committed to reviewing departmental policies. “Many now have questions about whether they can trust the LAPD to conduct a fair investigation and protect victims if the victims come forward to make a report against a rich, powerful and/or famous individual,” she said, contending that existing fears of coming forward to authorities would now be compounded. “It has a chilling effect on victims’ willingness to seek justice.”

Golden-Gottlieb’s son Jim added that those who file sexual assault complaints should have the confidence that law enforcement officials won’t compromise them “in any way.” His sister Cathy, seated in a conference room at Allred’s office, noted of their mother’s certain fury: “Thank God she’s not alive, because she would’ve really been jumping on these tabletops.”

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