Another Norman Conquest?

A new lawsuit accuses University of California Regent Norman Pattiz of requiring an employee to fake data to boost advertising revenue, brandishing loaded handguns to force compliance, and illegally firing the employee for complaining about it. The lawsuit, filed Sept. 22 in Los Angeles Superior Court against Pattiz and his company, PodcastOne, also accuses the regent of directing employees to bad-mouth the plaintiff, Raymond Hernandez, at his next job, getting him fired.

The lawsuit says the reason for this bullying was that Pattiz believed that Hernandez had given another employee, Heather McDonald, a recording of Pattiz sexually harassing her last year. McDonald quit and made the recording public in an embarrassing episode for which Pattiz publicly apologized. Pattiz denied the accusations.

Hernandez worked as a producer at PodcastOne from July 2014 to July 2016. His suit says Pattiz often required him to falsify the number of times certain podcasts were downloaded so advertisers would believe they were more popular than they really were. When Hernandez balked at providing the fake numbers, Pattiz, who is also a reserve officer of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, “brandished loaded handguns at PodcastOne’s office in Beverly Hills, pointing directly” at him, the suit says. It says Pattiz also waved his knife belt “to intimidate (Hernandez) to comply.”

In a statement, Pattiz responded: “This guy must be crazy. I’ve never met alone with him. I didn’t hire him or fire him. I barely know who he is.

“The fact that I’m a law enforcement reserve is well known,” the statement says. “I didn’t and would never act in the manner that’s been described.”

Source: http://www.sfchronicle.com/education/article/Suit-accuses-UC-Regent-Norman-Pattiz-of-12236346.php

We'll wait to hear the defense: