LA Times publisher put on unpaid leave over sexual misconduct accusations

The publisher of Los Angeles Times agreed on Friday to take unpaid leave from the company, amid calls for his resignation over sexual misconduct accusations. 

Ross Levinsohn “voluntarily agreed” to the unpaid leave, according to a memo sent to Times employees by Tronc CEO Justin Dearborn and obtained by Variety. “I want to reemphasize to you all that the company takes any allegations of inappropriate behavior by its employees very seriously.” 

The Times’s parent company, Tronc, has hired an outside law firm to investigate reports that Levinsohn was a defendant in two sexual harassment lawsuits prior taking the top spot for the newspaper in August. 

{mosads}“It is critical that in any such circumstances we conduct a thorough review so that we have a full understanding of what happened,” Dearborn wrote. “We will not hesitate to take further action, if appropriate, once the review is complete.”

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A union committee for the Times issued a statement calling for Levinsohn to “resign or be fired immediately” after it was reported that he had called gay people in the fashion industry “fags” and made inappropriate sexual remarks about female employees at the past companies.

Levinsohn has denied the claims, calling them “lies.”