Former SWFL TV anchor files discrimination lawsuit against Fox4, Scripps Media

UPDATE: The lawsuit was settled in June 2022. The station and its management were not found liable, according to Scripps company officials.

A former Southwest Florida-based WFTX-TV Fox 4 anchor has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the station's vice president and owner, Scripps Media, Inc.

In the complaint filed last week in Florida's Middle District Court, Jane Monreal, who is an Asian woman, claims WFTX sabotaged her broadcasting career when it terminated her contract soon after she voiced complaints about race discrimination at the news station.

Monreal alleges the discrimination began after WFTX hired Evan Pappas as vice president and general manager early last year, three months after the media organization awarded her a three-year employment contract as an anchor/multi-media journalist.

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Monreal said officials informed her that her contract would be cut short in November 2021 soon after she informed Scripps' corporate Human Resources that she was considering filing a discrimination lawsuit against the media organization and Pappas. The suit describes Pappas as a white man with "a reputation for forcing out or terminating Scripp's employees, particularly minority employees."

Since 2015, the E. W. Scripps Company has owned WFTX as its Fox-affiliated television station serving Fort Myers and Naples and is licensed to Cape Coral. Scripps is an American-based media conglomerate operating a portfolio of 61 stations in 41 markets and employs roughly 5,500 people.

It is the nation’s fourth-largest local TV broadcaster company.

Prior to Scripps appointing Pappas, a 30-year broadcast industry veteran, to his role at WFTX in April 2021, he served as vice president and general manager of KOAA, Scripps' NBC affiliate in Colorado Springs, Colorado, since 2011, according to a press release.

At the time, Scripps' Local Media President Brian Lawlor described Pappas as having "a record of leading high-performing teams and building stations' culture and operations to become a leader in the market."

In an email to The News-Press, a Scripps spokesperson said the company would not comment on a pending legal matter but said Pappas remains on staff as of Thursday.

According to the lawsuit, Monreal seeks a declaratory judgment from the court that her former employer's actions were illegal discrimination based upon race, and asks them to pay compensatory and punitive damages, in addition to reasonable attorney fees.

The allegations

Scripps first hired Monreal in 2015 as the morning anchor at KSHB in Kansas City before recruiting her to a sister station in Southwest Florida two years later in the same role.

KSHB broadcasts to 15 counties surrounding Kansas City in a metro market of 978,200 households. In 2020 the Kansas City metro area reported having more than 2.1 million residents, with one out of every four people being a person of color, according to an NPR report.

In late 2018, former WFTX vice president and general manager Darryll Green reassigned her to an evening anchor spot after Amy Wegmann resigned from the position, according to the complaint.

According to 2020 U.S. Census data, Lee and Collier counties added about 200,000 residents over the past decade, with the share of residents that are white in both counties declining from 83% in 2010 to 69%, and the percentage of multiracial residents jumping from 2% to 13%.

Concerns and complaints from employees made to HR about Pappas' discriminatory conduct and racially charged comments began soon after he took on his role, according to the lawsuit.

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Pappas was aware that employees had filed complaints with Scripps' corporate Human Resources and hotline, and "griped about the fact that he was being reported," and even told, "a white male employee to be careful what he said in the newsroom because 'the others' run to HR," the lawsuit says.

"The evidence thus far indicates that it has occurred where Mr. Pappas has been in charge and that the company has been put on notice but not corrected the problem," Monreal's attorney Kendra Presswood of Shankman Leone in Tampa told The News-Press in an email. "The discovery process has not yet started but we intend to find out if it is companywide."

During a meeting with an HR manager in October 2021, Monreal expressed her displeasure with the lack of support and resources provided to the evening news team and mentioned that she was considering filing a race discrimination lawsuit. A month later, she was informed that WFTX was terminating her contract and employment effective March 2022.

That same week, Derek Beasley, the black chief meteorologist was also terminated from WFTX. At least three other black female employees have resigned and seven out of eight on-air positions have been offered to white people since Pappas took over, according to the complaint.

Monreal claims she first complained about Pappas immediately reducing the marking support for her three-person evening news team, which included two minorities, and instead devoted nearly all resources to promoting the morning news team, which at the time was an all-white staff. Pappas also expressed his preference for white anchors and meteorologists, and "expressed his dislike for Monreal, saying he did not care for the female evening anchor."

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In the newsroom

The lawsuit claims that when Pappas would visit the newsroom, he would criticize and ignore minority employees while praising and engaging with white employees.

As an example, the lawsuit says that Pappas once "criticized the evening news anchors indicating that the broadcast was boring, but told (Patrick) Nolan, the white male anchor, that it was not his fault, it was the 'elements' around him, meaning Monreal and the Black chief meteorologist...[i]n contrast, he described the white male anchors as 'authentic'."

Pappas also asked minority employees if they would like to transfer to other stations while suggesting that "they would be good at the other station, often where the anchor's race matched the general community," and did not suggest that white employees move to other stations, the lawsuit alleges.

The suit claims he once told a prior employee that he sounded too "Black" for Colorado Springs, where Pappas had recently worked.

In addition, Pappas fired Managing Editor LaQunta Dixon, a black woman who accused him and Scripps of racism, the lawsuit says.

"Pappas had indicated he would fire Dixon approximately a month before he did so. He also bragged that he had surreptitiously taken a photograph of Dixon emotionally upset when he fired her," the complaint says.

Dixon could not be reached by email or phone.

Presswood told The News-Press that the other employees mentioned in the lawsuit are not represented by Shankman Leone.

A summons was issued to Scripps and Pappas on Jan 11 and the deadline to answer the complaint is 20 days after service, Presswood said.

Connect with breaking news reporter Rachel Heimann Mercader: @racheyy_marie (Twitter) or rachel.heimann@naplesnews.com

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Fox4 anchor Jane Monreal files discrimination lawsuit against Scripps Media, VP Evan Pappas