Disgraced WWE chairman Vince McMahon has reportedly agreed to settle a lawsuit from a woman who accused him of rape.
The Wall Street Journal‘s Joe Palazzolo and Ted Mann exclusively reported on the story on early Thursday afternoon. As per their report, McMahon’s accuser, Rita Chatterton, reportedly agreed to a settlement lower than the figure she sued McMahon for.
“Mr. McMahon’s settlement with Rita Chatterton, completed last month, averts a public legal fight over her allegations as Mr. McMahon pursues a possible sale of the company,” the WSJ wrote.
Chatterton initially sued McMahon for over $11 million. The WSJ reported though that “Ms. Chatterton agreed to a lesser amount in the millions of dollars, one of the people familiar with the matter said.”
The Journal did not report an exact figure.
Vince McMahon’s lawyer, Jerry McDevitt, was quoted as saying McMahon “settled the case solely to avoid the cost of litigation.” They remain defiant in denying any wrongdoing.
Chatterton accused McMahon of raping her in interviewers televised back in 1992. According to the WSJ, “Mr. McMahon had told her she needed to satisfy him to obtain a $500,000 contract with his company and raped her in the back of a limousine in New York.”
The report noted that Chatterton’s settlement includes a lump sum and annual installments. Her lawyer wrote in November that “The damage Ms. Chatterton had suffered from the alleged rape was ‘hard to overstate.’ Ms. Chatterton ‘has suffered years of ongoing depression, substance abuse, disordered eating, lost income, and overall a decreased quality of life.”
McMahon still currently faces lawsuits even as he hopes to facilitate a sale of WWE.
If you or someone you know is the victim of sexual assault, help is always available, 24 hours a day.
National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-4673
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022