Sexual abuse is casting its pall over yet another one of President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet picks, this time former World Wrestling Entertainment executive and would-be Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. A recent lawsuit by five former "ring boys" in the WWE accuses Mrs. McMahon an her husband, Vince, of enabling a ringside announcer who groomed and sexually abused children during the McMahons' tenure atop the organization in the 1980s.
The lawsuit names the late WWE ringside announcer and ring crew chief, Melvin Phillips Jr., as the abuser, and accuses the McMahons and the other defendants of criminal negligence by allowing Philips to remain at the company and continue his acts.
According to the lawsuit, Philips was himself a ring boy in the 1970s before ascending the ranks and gaining supervisory powers over other ring boys, staying with them at hotels and traveling with them across the country. At the time of the alleged abuse, the unnamed plaintiffs were between 13 and 15 years old.
After giving the boys free seats at the arena, the lawsuit said, Philips would bring them back to his hotel or dressing room, lie on top of them, massage their legs and feet and abuse them sexually. Sometimes, it continued, he would videotape the encounters, and always gave the boys money.
“We finally have a chance to hold accountable those who allowed and enabled the open, rampant sexual abuse of these young boys,” Greg Gutzler, the lawyer leading the case, said in a statement. “That so many were aware of the sexual abuse of the ring boys and did nothing to prevent or stop it is simply unconscionable.”
Laura Brevetti, an attorney representing McMahon, told CNN that the allegations were false. “This civil lawsuit based upon 30-plus-year-old allegations is filled with scurrilous lies, exaggerations and misrepresentations regarding Linda McMahon,” she said.
The WWE has long been dogged by allegations of underage boys being abused and other sex scandals, including reports that Mr. McMahon himself paid $12 million in hush money to four women to suppress allegations of his own sexual misconduct. During her 2010 and 2012 Senate campaigns in Connecticut, Ms. McMahon faced scrutiny over the billion-dollar operation she led, accused of prioritizing massive profits over the health and safety of wrestlers. In 2010, a leaked company memo seemed to incriminate Ms. McMahon for tipping off a doctor about a federal investigation into his alleged distribution of steroids to wrestlers.
Student advocacy groups and educators have argued that, given her record as WWE executive, McMahon cannot be trusted to look after education standards and campus safety.
“All students deserve to go to school and have the right to learn and grow without fear of harassment or discrimination,” Gaylynn Burroughs, vice president of education and workplace justice at the National Women’s Law Center, said in a statement. “The Department of Education’s sole purpose is to protect equal learning opportunities for all students, and the head of it must be focused on that.”
