As the end of August 2018 arrived, the future of Les Moonves as chief executive of what was CBS Corporation was suddenly put under a microscope amid multiple allegations of sexual assault and misconduct. Talk of a $100 million exit package dominated the Labor Day holiday chatter across the industry, with Moonves’ resignation completing his downfall in September 2018.
Now, Moonves is back in the news, and sees the former CBS head agreeing to pay a fine to the City of Los Angeles for violating its ethics code.
As first reported by NBC Los Angeles, Moonves personally tried to influence former Los Angeles Police Department Captain Corey Palka, who was found to have spread confidential information about a criminal investigation in which Moonves had been accused of sexually assaulting a former employee.
The information was made public on February 16 in legal documents distributed by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission.
To settle the matter, Moonves on February 5 agreed to pay a $11,250 fine, settling a claim he violated the city’s ethics code by “inducing” a city official to misuse his position in order to create a private advantage for Moonves.
The Ethics Commission discovered that Palka met with Moonves on November 25, 2017 at a restaurant in Westlake Village, a Conejo Valley suburb. “The meeting was not part of the official investigation by the LAPD,” the commission determined.
Following the meeting, Moonves in December 2017 texted Palka directly and discussed the case again, the commission found.
Palka is now retired and told NBC Los Angeles he was unaware of the allegations.
From 2002-2012, Moonves helped in leading CBS to ratings victories in total viewers for nine of those 10 years. He then earned a fresh five-year contract, with a reported $3.5 million annual salary, that kept him in the CEO role of CBS Corp. through June 2017. By December 2016, Moonves had been confidently leading the company, boasting to attendees of the 44th Annual Global Media and Communications Conference that “you can’t live without CBS.”
Just 18 month later, Moonves, in the midst of a power struggle that eventually saw CBS merge with Viacom as lead shareholder Shari Redstone ensured Bob Bakish became CEO, was confronted with sexual assault claims. Among them — an accusation from Phyllis Gottlieb that she was assaulted by Moonves in 1986 while working for him at the time of the alleged incident. It is this matter that was discussed in Moonves’ improper conversations with Palka; the incident was beyond the statute of limitations for prosecution in the city of Los Angeles.
Nevertheless, the leaked information from Palka to Moonves went against the rules.
Did the two have a friendship? Perhaps, as Palka had been hired to act as Moonves’ security guard at the Grammy Awards between 2008 and 2014.
“I’m deeply sorry this happened,” Palka wrote to Moonves after his September 2018 resignation from CBS. “I will always stand with, by and pledge my allegiance to you.”
