Tiger Woods’ former girlfriend claims star sexual harassed her
Tiger Woods is seeking to enforce a nondisclosure agreement with his former girlfriend in an attempt to keep their $45 million legal battle out of the public eye.
A judge in Florida expressed scepticism about claims Tiger Woods’ ex-girlfriend Erica Herman is making in seeking to nullify a nondisclosure agreement that stipulates their legal disputes be adjudicated by a private arbitrator.
In March, Herman sued Woods, seeking to invalidate the NDA that she signed in August of 2017 at the beginning of their relationship, on grounds that the Speak Out Act enabled the agreements to be voided in the case of sexual assault or abuse.
Herman had filed a $45 million suit against Woods’ trust last October for alleged sexual harassment.
She has since claimed that Woods imposed the NDA on her while she was working at his restaurant in Florida.
Last week, she filed court documents claiming she feared winding up “heartbroken and jobless” if she agreed to the NDA and the relationship with Woods fell through, before ultimately signing the agreement.
Requiring her to sign the nondisclosure agreement while she worked for him constitutes sexual harassment, Herman, 38, claims in court papers, according to Sports Illustrated.
“Mr. Woods was Ms. Herman’s boss,’’ Herman’s lawyer Benjamin Hodas wrote in the filing.
“…A boss imposing different work conditions on his employee because of their sexual relationship is sexual harassment.”
BRUTAL TACTICS
Hodas also alleged Woods’ break-up tactics were brutal.
He claims the golfing great tricked Herman into leave his home last year by telling her to pack her bags for a trip to the Bahamas, but when she arrived at the airport Woods’ lawyers told her she was locked out of the house, couldn’t see Woods again and asked her to sign another NDA.
She refused.
“Tiger Woods, the internationally renowned athlete and one of the most powerful figures in global sports, decided to pursue a sexual relationship with his employee, then – according to him – forced her to sign an NDA about it or else be fired from her job,” Hodas noted.
“And, when he became disgruntled with their sexual relationship, he tricked her into leaving her home, locked her out, took her cash, pets, and personal possessions, and tried to strongarm her into signing a different NDA.”
A JILTED EX-GIRLFRIEND
In the suit, Herman alleged that Woods locked her out of the home the former couple shared, violating an oral agreement between the two that she would be able to remain there for five more years.
After Herman sought to nullify the NDA, Woods filed a response that claimed, “Ms. Herman is a jilted ex-girlfriend who wants to publicly litigate specious claims in court, rather than honour her commitment to arbitrate disputes in a confidential arbitration proceeding.”
On Tuesday, Circuit Judge Elizabeth Metzger asked Herman’s attorney what choice she had other than to quash the lawsuit and determine that it had to be resolved in arbitration, as the NDA had required.
Hodas admitted that his client had signed an NDA, but questioned whether the specific one that Woods’ attorneys presented to the court was the one Herman had signed.
“We don’t know,” Herman’s attorney told the judge. “My client cannot say for certain that is her signature and she does not recall signing this document.”
Murray, Woods’ attorney, called this point “a bit of a red herring.”
“One thing you did not hear Mr. Hodas say is that she did not sign it,” Murray told the judge. “They are not bold enough.” The judge said she would issue a decision on the matter in writing, but did not specify a date.
This article originally appeared in the New York Post
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