Deborah Dugan wants the Academy to make the legal documents she had to sign upon being hired by the organization public.
The drama between Dugan, who was ousted over alleged misconduct during her time as the Recording Academy’s CEO, and the Academy is getting thicker. Now, Dugan is asking that the arbitration agreement that she signed when she joined the Academy be released.
“The Academy intentionally brought this dispute to the public’s attention, and I am asking you to agree to let the public and music industry access the legal proceedings to come in this case. I have nothing to hide. The public and the music industry have the right to know what is going on behind closed doors at the Academy,” she wrote. Dugan was let go as the first female CEO of the Academy following claims from her former assistant, Claudine Little, that Dugan was performing unclear “misconduct” during her five months in the position.
Five days after her dismissal, Dugan came back with a complaint that was filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In the complaint, Dugan detailed her own allegations, including sexual harassment, “egregious conflicts of interest, improper self-dealing by Board members and voting irregularities,” as well as others. “To the extent that the Academy is successful in forcing me to arbitrate my claims, it will simultaneously be denying the music industry and the public at large information concerning the issues raised in my EEOC Charge, including, among other things, discrimination, wasteful spending, sexual harassment, self-dealing, conflicts of interest and irregularities in the Grammys voting process,” Dugan wrote in the letter.
Dugan said the Academy’s investigation is “completely biased” because the investigator who is performing the probe was “handpicked” by Proskauer Rose, LLP. She said Proskauer Rose is “one of the law firms that are ‘in bed’ with the Academy.” On Friday, the Recording Academy’s Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion reprimanded the Academy for failing to include the recommendations of a report on diversity and inclusivity last month, according to Variety.
