TRIGGER WARNING - TRAUMA AND ABUSE
Janel Grant's lawyer speaks on her behalf.
On Thursday, a lawsuit was filed by Janel Grant against Vince McMahon, WWE and former executive John Laurinaitis. The lawsuit accuses McMahon of sex trafficking, emotional abuse, and sexual assault.
The lawsuit includes disturbing details of how Janel was treated sexually, physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Grant's lawyer Ann Callis appeared on Law&Crime with Angenette Levy to discuss the lawsuit.
Levy described certain allegations in the lawsuit, including Janel being defecated on and being forced to continue to have sex. She then asked why Janel continued in the relationship.
"There is a thing called trauma bonding that people who haven't studied it, I have just read articles; I'm not a psychiatrist or psychologist, but an attorney. She literally felt caged and imprisoned by Vince McMahon. The escalation of the degrading things that happened to her, it's important for it to come out. These are facts. These are allegations that we hope to be prove to be true. They are true," she said.
When asked what Grant hopes to accomplish with the lawsuit, Callis replied, "She wants her life back. She wants ownership of her story. She wants to help other victims. This is relatively close in time, 2019 when this unfolded, 2020, and her hope is to help other victims if there are other victims, to come forward because she had the courage and presence of mind to finally get this done and come forward."
Asked what Janel is doing now, Callis said, "What happened to her, and what was alleged, left her physically and mentally absolutely destroyed. She is trying to recover and she believes this is the first step. Filing this lawsuit took such tremendous courage from her. She was in an extremely vulnerable position when she first encountered Vince McMahon. Her parents had passed, she was the primary caregiver for her parents. Besides being an inordinately playing field between Vince McMahon and Janela, she still tried to conduct herself, tried to be the best possible employee for the WWE that she could be under the most devastating and sexually depraved circumstances."
Levy then mentioned the claim that McMahon and Laurinaitis cornered her and had sex with her while others knew.
When asked if it was a known thing to happen in WWE, Callis said, "It is disturbing. What happened to her is disturbing. I believe it was in Laurinaitis' office, that they locked. She was sexually assaulted, we are claiming, the WWE headquarters, under the nose of the executives and the employees."
After saying the allegations are disturbing and horrifying, Levy asked if McMahon's actions were an open secret in the office.
"It is horrifying. Janel was in an atmosphere of fear. Perhaps some of the employees, or many of the employees, were in an atmosphere of fear. That permeated her being and I think it permeated the entire headquarters," Callis replied.
Asked if she believes there are other victims, Callis said, "Whether they worked in the company or not, yes, the belief is there are other victims out there, just the way the grooming of Janel went on, it indicates that. There are a lot of indicators that there may be, and probably are, other victims out there. One of Janel's hopes is that by coming forward she will give the courage of other victims to come forward too."
Asked if there are other employees who could support her, Callis replied, "That's later for trial when we gather all of our witnesses. Personally, she does not, but there can be empirical circumstances that she may have encountered that could have indicated there were other victims, but personally, one-on-one, she doesn't have direct knowledge."
Levy then mentions the text messages that are present in the lawsuit, which claims that Janel is being trafficked. She asks Callis if there is other evidence and text messages.
"We have her first-hand testimony. Gathering all the evidence, are there other text messages out there? Yes. This was just the complaint. Now, we are building the pool of evidence that we will present to a jury," she said.
Asked what happens with the NDA, which Vince stopped paying on, Callis replied, "It was attached to our complaint, so we are trying to invalidate it."
Levy then read TKO's statement, which said, Mr. McMahon does not control TKO nor does he oversee the day-to-day operations of WWE. While this matter predates our TKO executive team’s tenure at the company, we take Ms. Grant’s horrific allegations very seriously and are addressing this matter internally.”
Levy asks Callis if TKO has reached out and Callis says "No," before responding to the statement.
"I believe we were, at least Janel, was fine that they did acknowledge what happened to her was horrific," she said.
Asked if Janel felt preyed upon and targeted, Callis replied, "She was targetted and preyed upon. As I mentioned before, she was in a very vulnerable position and Vince McMahon took advantage of that and then took it a million steps further in the sexual torture, the degradation, the push-pull of trauma bonding all occurred to her. She still, to this day, trying to process what happened to her. She literally could not get out of bed. She wasn't having any personal grooming. She's not really eating. It's really taken a toll besides the physical injuries she's suffered. It's going to be a long process. Hopefully, yesterday, by filing this suit, is her first step in the healing process."
Finally, Callis read a statement given to her by Ms. Grant.
"She hopes any doors of secrecy have been blown off their hinges and that fresh air fills the headquarters. She hopes those at the company, past and present, who fear speaking out about harm is a thing of he past. She wishes everyone peace," she said.
The lawsuit describes, in graphic detail, Grant's account of her interactions with McMahon. Readers can view the lawsuit, which comes with a trigger warning, by clicking here.
McMahon has denied the allegations and said, through a spokesman, that he will vigorously defend himself.
Victim Resources:
National Sexual Assault Hotline
Hours: Available 24 hours
1-800-656-4673
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