Three months after news broke of the bombshell workplace misconduct lawsuit implicating several current and former Fox Sports employees, it now appears the case is headed for a settlement.
According to a court filing obtained by Awful Announcing, Fox Sports, former FS1 host Skip Bayless, current FS1 host Joy Taylor, and current Fox Sports executive Charlie Dixon attempted to mediate the lawsuit brought by former Fox Sports hairstylist Noushin Faraji. No resolution was reached last month when the two sides met, but negotiations remain ongoing. Front Office Sports first reported news of an impending settlement.
Per the filing submitted in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday, Faraji and Fox Sports “are continuing to engage in settlement discussions with the mediator” and have thus requested that an initial status conference initially scheduled for April 22 be pushed back to July 29.
“The parties believe that to preserve resources, it would be beneficial to hold off on the Initial Status Conference pending completing settlement negotiations,” the document reads.
Faraji’s initial complaint alleged, among other things, that both Bayless and Dixon sexually harassed her during various times of her employment at Fox. Additionally, she alleges that she was the target of racially insensitive comments from Taylor.
Shortly after Faraji’s lawsuit was filed, former Fox Sports host Julie Stewart-Binks filed a similar lawsuit against Dixon. Stewart-Binks alleges that the Fox Sports executive sexually assaulted her in his hotel room during a 2016 meeting. Last week, Dixon filed a response claiming that he had “no sexual or offensive contact or intentional contact with [Stewart-Binks]” at the meeting.
Given the nature of the allegations, it was always unlikely that either of these lawsuits would ever go to trial. But Fox Sports and the three individual defendants have already suffered reputational harm.