Andrew Napolitano out at Fox News amid allegations of harassment

Andrew Napolitano is out as a contributor at Fox News as he faces allegations of sexual harassment contained in a lawsuit against the network filed Monday.

Napolitano, formerly a top legal analyst at the network, “sexually harassed numerous young male employees during his tenure at Fox News,” according a lawsuit filed by Fox Business production assistant John Fawcett.

Fawcett, 27, alleges that during a 2019 interaction in an elevator at Fox News headquarters, Napolitano stood “awkwardly close” to him and began stroking his arm. Napolitano told Fawcett he could come visit him on his horse farm in New Jersey and “suggestively” said his hands “get really dirty,” according to the lawsuit.

Napolitano did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit alleges that top executives at Fox News were made aware of Napolitano’s conduct but failed to act, an assertion the network denied in a statement confirming Napolitano is no longer with the company.

“Upon first learning of John Fawcett’s allegations against Judge Andrew Napolitano, FOX News Media immediately investigated the claims and addressed the matter with both parties,” Fox said in a statement Monday. “The network and Judge Napolitano have since parted ways.”

“Fox News takes all allegations of misconduct seriously,” the company said, adding that it is “committed to providing a safe, transparent, and collaborative workplace environment for all our employees and took immediate, appropriate action” in Napolitano’s case.

Last fall, Napolitano was accused of sexual misconduct by a South Carolina resident, Charles Corbishley, who alleged the judge forced him to perform oral sex on him in Hackensack, N.J., in the late 1980s.

Those allegations were made as part of a court filing in a separate lawsuit filed by James Kruzelnick, who alleged that Napolitano sexually assaulted him while he working as a waiter at two restaurants in Sussex County, N.J., in recent years, NorthJersey.com reported.

Tom Clare, Napolitano’s attorney, denied Kruzelnick’s claims last fall.

“The gratuitous inclusion of this copycat nonsense in a routine procedural filing is nothing more than a sad attempt to prop up Mr. Corbishley’s doomed lawsuit and the latest attempt by Mr. Corbishley and his lawyers to smear Judge Napolitano,” Clare said.

Napolitano sat on the bench from 1987 to 1995, when he presided over more than 150 jury trials and thousands of motions, sentencings and hearings, according to his personal website. He joined Fox News in 1998.

Updated 6:38 p.m.