A lawsuit filed in New York City this week accuses CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon of biting two medical workers at the United States Embassy in Baghdad last month while drunk.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the two emergency medical technicians \u2013 Charles Simons and Tracy Lamar \u2013 filed the suit in New York County Supreme Court against CNN and Damon, Courthouse News\u00a0reported<\/a>, and together they\u2019re requesting $2 million on account of the correspondent\u2019s alleged \u201coutrageous conduct<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the\u00a0New York Daily News<\/a>, the two EMTs were working for a private contractor in Baghdad on July 19 when a \u201cseriously intoxicated<\/em>\u201d Damon became \u201cunruly and violent<\/em>\u201d towards embassy staff, prompting the medics to try and calm the correspondent down. Damon reportedly shrugged off those attempts, however, and then boasted of being \u201ca major reporter for CNN<\/em>\u201d before biting the EMTs, the suit suggests.<\/p>\n “She was biting them both pretty furiously. She has good teeth<\/em>,\u201d David Jaroslawicz, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told the Daily News. \u201cEventually they subdued her<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Courthouse News reported that the Simons and Lamar also allege that Damon \u201chas a history of becoming intoxicated and then abusive<\/em>\u201d and write in the suit that, “In fact, defendant Damon has a history of and penchant for violence even when sober<\/em>.”<\/p>\n When TMZ first reported on the lawsuit on Monday, a spokesperson for CNN told\u00a0POLITICO<\/a>\u00a0that they were \u201cnot aware<\/em>\u201d of any legal action being taken against the network or the correspondent. Soon after, though, the New York Post reported that Damon had personally owned up to her behavior and even wrote an apology to the embassy staff last month after the ordeal \u2013 despite not recalling the details of the incident.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to extent [sic] my sincerest apologies and deepest gratitude to all that were involved in helping me out<\/em>,\u201d the letter reads. \u201cIt\u2019s been an extremely stressful time, I was exhausted, I had not had proper food all day and clearly miscalculated how my body would handle the alcohol consumed. . .Needless to say, I am utterly mortified and take full responsibility for my actions, which are inexcusable<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI am being filled in on the details of my behavior. I am beyond embarrassed. My actions and words were entirely out of my character, and I hope that everyone can at some point forgive me<\/em>,\u201d the letter continues. \u201cSo once again, I am apologizing and extending my thanks to all that were involved in ensuring that I am, thankfully, in the end, taken care of and physically at least OK. Everyone was extremely professional and courteous in the face of my unjustified behavior<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking to the Daily News, Jaroslawicz said that “Legally, this is an admission<\/em>,\u201d and will likely be entered into the case as evidence. Additionally, the attorney claimed that both the US Department of Justice and Department of State are investigating the incident.<\/p>\n \u201cTo get so very drunk and attack people who are trying to help you is somewhat disturbing, particularly as a reporter<\/em>,\u201d Jaroslawicz told the\u00a0New York Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n Damon, 36, has worked at CNN since 2006, and won an Investigative Reporters and Editors\u2019 IRE Award for her coverage of the September 11, 2012 attack on the US consulate building in Benghazi, Libya.<\/p>\n This piece<\/a> was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A lawsuit filed in New York City this week accuses CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon of biting two medical workers at the United States Embassy in Baghdad last month while drunk. On Tuesday, the two emergency medical technicians \u2013 Charles Simons and Tracy Lamar \u2013 filed the suit in New York County Supreme Court […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":135056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-135055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-media-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}