A woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by Vince McMahon in the back of a limousine nearly 40 years ago wants to pay the former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO nearly $12 million, according to a report.
Rita Chatterton, 65, the first female referee in WWE history, broke her silence on allegations of rape in 1992. McMahon has long denied the allegations.
Chatterton’s attorney, John Clune, wrote a demand letter to McMahon’s attorney on Nov. 3. According to The Wall Street Journal.
A lawyer who spoke to The Post said demand letters from lawyers asking for large sums of money often result in lawsuits.
In the letter, Clune demanded $11.75 million in damages from McMahon. He wrote that the consequences of McMahon’s actions were “difficult to overestimate.”
The letter states that Chatterton “suffered years of depression, substance abuse, disordered eating, loss of income and a generally reduced quality of life.”
Chatterton claims that McMahon demanded sexual favors from him as a condition of receiving a $500,000-a-year contract from WWE.
“He promised me half a million dollars a year,” she told New York magazine earlier this year.
Former professional wrestler Leonard Inzitari told the magazine that Chatterton confided in him in 1986 after he was accused of rape.
“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Inzitari told the publication. “He was devastating. He shivered. He was crying.”
Inzitari, whose stage name is Mario Mancini, said that shortly after the incident, he saw Chatterton standing alone near the wrestling ring and that he had cried when he saw him and that he was in McMahon’s limo. said the penis comes out.”
According to New York magazine, Inzitari recalled Chatterton telling him, “He put my head down and I said I wasn’t interested in doing it.”
“Then, [McMahon] pulled me on top of him,” he said to Inzitari.
Soon, according to Inzitari, “he was inside her.”
Contacted by The Post, Clune declined to comment.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for another woman, a former resort manager who claims she was sexually assaulted by McMahon at a resort in Southern California in 2011, has been in regular contact with McMahon’s longtime attorney Jerry McDevitt since July. The Journal said the incident was never reported.
The Post has reached out to McMahon for comment. He declined to comment when contacted by the magazine. The Post also sought comment from McDevitt, who did not respond to the Journal’s requests.
Both New York and California recently passed legislation allowing sexual assault victims a year to file legal claims outside the statute of limitations, starting in January.
The content of the demand letter from the spa manager’s lawyer has not been disclosed.
“Yes, the demand letters received by McMahon usually come before a lawsuit, especially if the amount sought is very large,” Los Angeles-based attorney Robert Freund told The Post.
“Since McMahon has said he won’t settle, there’s a good chance a trial will begin.”
According to the Journal, McMahon told friends he would refuse to pay the bills to Chatterton and the former resort manager.
In July, McMahon announced his resignation as WWE CEO and Chairman following an investigation into hush money payments the company made to several women.
McMahon reportedly regretted the decision to resign – which he believes was the result of bad advice from those around him.
The mogul is now said to have said that if he had stayed on as CEO, the investigations would have been on track and he could have weathered the storm.
The Wall Street Journal first reported earlier this year that McMahon had agreed to pay several women more than $12 million in exchange for their silence over sexual assault and infidelity allegations.
McMahon, who initially stepped aside last spring after it was revealed he paid $3 million to a lawyer who claimed they had an affair, was replaced by his daughter Stephanie McMahon and Nick Hahn as CEO.
Vince McMahon was initially supposed to continue overseeing WWE’s creative staff while the paralegal’s allegations were investigated.
But then the Journal reported that Vince McMahon had agreed to pay $12 million.
The four women — all previously associated with WWE — Vince signed contracts with McMahon that prevented them from discussing their relationshipThe Journal reported it earlier, citing people familiar with the deals and documents it had reviewed.
Vince McMahon said he is cooperating with the company’s investigation.
With a net worth of $3.4 billion, Vince McMahon built what was then called the World Wrestling Federation from a fledgling small business into a global powerhouse generating north of $1 billion annually.
WWE has television deals with Fox and NBCUniversal, as well as a long-standing partnership with A&E.
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