Don Lemon Awarded Attorney's Fees In Harassment Suit

A federal magistrate has ordered that CNN anchor Don Lemon be paid $77,119 in legal fees as part of an ongoing legal battle against a Florida man who is suing him for assault and emotional distress.

Magistrate Judge Steven J. Locke, in a pair of recent rulings, has determined that Dustin Hice, who filed the lawsuit in August 2019, had destroyed or failed to provide Lemon’s legal team with evidence — specifically, text messages, photos and videos he had on his phone — during the discovery phase of the trial.

Locke agreed that Hice would be cited for his behavior during jury instruction at the trial, and ordered the payment of legal fees, but he denied Lemon’s request that the suit be dismissed.

In his suit, Hice, a former bartender at the Old Stove Pub in Sagaponack, said that he and other employees of the restaurant were at Murf’s Backstreet Tavern in Sag Harbor in July 2018 when they encountered Lemon, who has a home in the village.

His suit claims Hice tried to buy Lemon a “lemon drop” cocktail, which he declined, and both went their separate ways. The suit claims that Lemon later approached Hice, placed his hand in his own pants and rubbed it against his genitalia before sticking his fingers in Hice’s face.

Lemon denies the allegation.

Hice, who sought unspecified damages, claimed that he was so upset he immediately fled the bar and suffered severe emotional distress from the event that prevented him from working.

But during the discovery phase, Lemon’s attorneys alleged that Hice had deleted text messages and other information from his phone that would have damaged his case. That includes text messages with a woman he planned to call as a witness who wrote that it was Hice and his friend who had harassed the anchorman.

That witness provided the court with copies of texts that Hice either deleted or did not share with the defense to Lemon’s attorneys.

“Hice’s conduct, when taken in total, depicts an attempt to deceive this court by attacking the integrity of the litigation process, and must be treated accordingly,” Locke wrote.