Former CBS CEO Leslie Moonves fined $11K for prodding LA cop to release details in sex assault case against him
Former CBS CEO Leslie Moonves was slapped with a $11,250 fine for persuading a former police captain to give him information about a sexual assault case against him, according to newly released court documents.
Moonves in 2017 obtained leaked information about the investigation into accusations against him by a Los Angeles Police Department captain, NBC Los Angeles reported.
He agreed to pay the fine on Feb. 5 for violating the city’s ethics code, according to legal documents made public by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission and obtained by the news outlet on Friday.
Former LAPD captain Corey Palka met with Moonves at a restaurant in Westlake Village, about 40 miles west of LA, in 2017 to share the confidential details, an investigation by the commission found.
Palka explicitly pledged his allegiance to Moonves, the probe determined.
“They met for about an hour and discussed the LAPD investigation,” the documents said. “The meeting was not part of the official investigation by the LAPD.”
They discussed the case again in December, the commission found.
The exchanges took place months before the allegations were made public.
Palka told NBC 4 before the commission’s findings were released that he was unaware of allegations that he had leaked confidential information about the case to CBS executives or Moonves.
Meddling in the case by CBS and Moonves was first revealed in an insider trading settlement with the New York Attorney General’s Office.
CBS and Moonves were ordered to pay $30.5 million dollars in 2022 by Attorney General Letitia James for insider trading and covering up multiple sexual assault allegations against the executive.
The embattled CEO resigned from CBS in 2018 after at least 12 women, including television executive Phyllis Gottlieb, accused him of sexually assaulting them.
Moonves has denied the allegations.
Gottlieb accused Moonves of assaulting her while she worked for him in 1986.
Some of the other accusers said he forced sex acts on them while others said he retaliated professionally when they rejected his advances.
The ethics findings stated that Palka also texted Moonves after his resignation from CBS.
“I’m deeply sorry this happened,” Palka said, according to the documents. ” I will always stand with, by and pledge my allegiance to you.”
