Paula Deen Denies Employee’s Racism, Sexual Harassment Charges

Lisa Jackson, the former general manager of Uncle Bubba’s Seafood and Oyster House in Savannah, Ga., is accusing Hiers of sexual harassment, infliction of emotional distress, and assault. Plus, she says that he and Deen used racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic language in front of employees — in other words, the exact opposite of Southern hospitality.

Today Deen fired back, saying that Jackson is far from innocent. Oliver Maner LLP, which represents Deen, suggests in a statement released today that Jackson is guilty of blackmail. “We investigated [Jackson’s] claims and attempted unsuccessfully to address those claims with her. She has made baseless, inflammatory allegations, threatening to go to the press and ruin Paula Deen’s reputation and the reputation of her businesses unless we paid her a large sum of money. We refused to bow to that kind of pressure and refused to pay money to address false claims,” says her rep.

The statement also insists that Jackson’s account is untrue, and “will be proven false in court. We have filed our defensive pleadings with the court denying Ms. Jackson’s claims and those pleadings are a matter of public record. We will hold Ms. Jackson and her lawyer accountable for these false allegations. We look forward to our day in court and have nothing further to say.” 

This is getting pretty ugly, y’all!

Source: Entertainment Weekly