Kate Merrill, a former longtime anchor at WBZ-TV, has filed a $4 million lawsuit towards the station, CBS and its father or mother firm, Paramount, and 4 former co-workers alleging racial and gender discrimination, in keeping with a criticism filed Tuesday in federal court docket.
Merrill, who abruptly left WBZ in 2024, claims the Boston station and two corporations took a “career-ending motion” towards her to “advance a DEI agenda,” brief for range, fairness and inclusion, the criticism states.
Merrill, who joined WBZ in 2004 as a reporter and rose to co-anchor of the Boston station’s morning present, mentioned she suffered discrimination on the idea of her race and gender. Paramount opened an investigation into her conduct after two Black coworkers individually raised complaints about her, in keeping with the lawsuit.
Merrill is in search of a jury trial and $4 million in damages, in keeping with the net court docket information.
Information of the lawsuit was first reported Tuesday night time by universalhub.com.
Within the 57-page criticism, Merrill alleges that the defendants did nothing to research a sexually suggestive on-air remark and unrelated verbal confrontation by a type of coworkers, meteorologist Jason Mikell.
Mikell allegedly yelled at Merrill throughout the studio ground and mentioned she was essential of him after Merrill corrected his pronunciation of the city identify “Harmony” in a personal textual content message, she mentioned.
Merrill was demoted from co-anchor of the morning present to working weekend nights “to make an instance of her,” the criticism alleged. Fearing the demotion would trigger “catastrophic harm” to her profession, Merrill resigned on Could 24, 2024. She mentioned she was unable to work in journalism till her employment settlement ended on June 1 because of a non-compete clause.
Merill additionally filed discrimination expenses with the Massachusetts Fee In opposition to Discrimination and the Equal Employment Alternative Fee, which she withdrew to pursue the lawsuit.
This creating story will likely be up to date if extra data turns into accessible.
Jade Lozada may be reached at jade.lozada@globe.com.
