Charlie Dixon, the FOX Sports executive who has now been twice accused of sexual battery by two different former employees, has been placed on administrative leave, according to The Athletic.
Back in January, former FOX Sports hair stylist Noushin Faraji accused Dixon of groping her at a co-worker’s party in 2017.
Last week, former FOX Sports reporter Julie Stewart-Binks accused Dixon of asking her to come to his hotel room after a work meeting in 2016, pushing her against a wall, pinning her arms and forcibly kissing her.
The Athletic published Stewart-Binks’ allegations last Friday and Dixon did not respond to a request for comment at the time. He also did not respond when The Athletic asked for further comment on Monday.
FOX, a defendant in both Stewart-Binks’ and Faraji’s lawsuits, declined to comment on Dixon’s work status to The Athletic.
After publishing Stewart-Binks’ allegations, FOX Sports said in a statement,’ These allegations are from over eight years ago. At the time, we promptly hired a third-party firm to investigate and addressed the matter based on their findings.’
Dixon was hired by FOX in 2015 and began working his way up the corporate ladder at the network, becoming head of content with FOX Sports and FS1.
The Athletic reports that he was expected to be involved in FS1’s coverage of Super Bowl LIX this week in New Orleans.
Faraji’s lawsuit names Fox Corporation and Dixon as defendants as well as current host Joy Taylor and former pundit Skip Bayless.
Much of Faraji’s suit details an alleged affair that Taylor was having with Dixon and a separate one she was allegedly having with fellow FOX host Emmanuel Acho. It also focuses on Bayless – who Faraji claims offered her $1.5million for sex.
But the part that concerns Dixon relates to a party in 2017 where she alleges the executive groped her buttocks.
When Faraji brought up her alleged complaints of sexual harassment by Bayless and Dixon to Taylor, the hair stylist claims that Taylor told her to ‘get over it.’
Meanwhile, Stewart-Binks’ accusation solely focuses on behavior from Dixon.
Stewart-Binks, a Canadian who had joined FS1 shortly after the network was founded, was working on Jason Whitlock’s show in 2016 ahead of Super Bowl 50.
Dixon asked Stewart-Binks to meet in a hotel bar in Marina Del Rey, California to discuss the assignment before berating her and allegedly telling her she wasn’t ‘funny, interesting or talented’ and that ‘the only way someone would watch you is if you got on top of this bar and took your top off.’
After the meeting, Dixon invited Stewart-Binks to come up to his room, which sparked ‘alerts’ in her mind. But, because he was her boss and she felt she couldn’t say no, she went up.
Once in the room, Dixon is said to have ‘swiftly pushed her against the wall and pinned her arms to her side. With her arms forcefully held down and his body pressed against hers, Dixon tried to force his tongue into her mouth.’
Stewart-Binks says she kept her mouth shut but Dixon ‘ignored her, continuing to press against her body and lick her closed mouth. While keeping one of her arms pinned, he moved his other arm from pressing her upper elbow against the wall to her body and towards her chest.’
Stewart-Binks then fled the room and called a friend to explain what happened. But she decided against disclosing to Fox Sports what took place amid fears over her future at the network, particularly given her contract was due to expire soon.
Stewart-Binks says she later raised the incident with Fox’s HR department but the network ‘egregiously made the deliberate decision to protect Dixon and allow a sexual predator to remain an executive at Fox for nearly a decade.’
Days after the incident, while working on Whitlock’s Super Bowl show in San Francisco, Stewart-Binks claims Fox Sports executives encouraged her to participate in a ‘viral moment’ with Rob Gronkowski, who had recently admitted to being a stripper in college.
Producers are said to have encouraged her to get the legendary New England Patriots tight end to do some ‘Magic Mike moves’ and even gave her dollar bills to give to him while he performed.
With a laughing Whitlock watching on, Gronkowski straddled Stewart-Binks on live TV and thrusted his body in her face. She was criticized for her role in the stunt at the time.
‘Ordinarily, Ms. Stewart-Binks would have considered the implications of such a performance. However, fresh off Dixon’s assault, both physical and verbal, Ms. Stewart-Binks was determined to prove that she was fun and belonged in FS1’s new regime,’ the complaint reads.
‘She had to show Dixon and Fox that she had what it took to be a fun, interesting personality capable of handling big moments on TV.’
A month after the Super Bowl, in March 2016, Stewart-Binks was told Fox Sports would not be giving her a new contract.
A year later, in June 2017, a Fox HR official then contacted Stewart-Binks with regards to an investigation into Jamie Horowitz, another FS1 executive.
While telling them she had nothing to share about Horowitz, Stewart-Binks did inform the HR official about the incidents with Dixon. She also gave the names of two Fox employees who she had told and they corroborated her version of events.
Horowitz was fired by Fox Sports in July 2017 but Dixon kept his job at the network while then-Fox Sports president Eric Shanks told employees that ‘everyone at Fox Sports should act with respect and adhere to professional conduct at all times. These values are non-negotiable.’
Stewart-Binks added in the lawsuit that ‘a pang of frustration lingered’ when she would see former Fox colleagues thriving while she was stuck covering smaller markets.
She went on to hold positions at ESPN and CBC. Now she hosts a podcast with former NHL player Nate Thompson and works as a reporter at SNY.
‘This wasn’t the life she had envisioned for herself,’ the lawsuit went on. ‘Intrusive thoughts would enter her mind on how different her life could have been if she had just had sex with Dixon, but she would shut them down.
‘To cope with the severe emotional toll of what Dixon had done to her, Ms. Stewart-Binks sought professional help.’
