'Piolin' Sues Former Univision Staffers For Extortion

Fighting Back

Spanish radio host EDDIE "PIOLIN" SOTELO today filed a civil extortion lawsuit against six former UNIVISION employees and their L.A.attorneys for the attempted extortion of nearly $5 million when they allegedly threatened to go public with false and misleading allegations of sexual harassment and workplace humiliation. The defendants are former friends and colleagues from PIOLIN's ill-fated UNIVISION syndicated morning show -- DOMINGO RODRIGO OCHOA; TOMAS ALEJANDRO FERNANDEZ; SAMUEL "CUSUCO" HEREDIA; SERGIO "CHECO" VERA; GERARDO "CHIQUIRRUCO" PALENCIA and BERTHA "BETUSHCA" VELASCO. Also named defendants are attorneys JOHN C. TAYLOR and ROBERT R. CLAYTON and their firm, TAYLOR & RING.

Filed in L.A. COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT, the suit alleged that the Defendants made their demands of PIOLIN last week on the telephone and in writing. The demands followed press reports that another former employee had made similar wild claims as well as the announcement that PIOLIN and SIRIUSXM had agreed to launch a new channel of Spanish-language programming soon. The Defendants allegedly offered to "seal their lips" and take their own copycat allegations "to their graves" if PIOLIN paid the group $4.9 million. Their attorneys made this demand although they acknowledged to PIOLIN's counsel that three of their clients were time-barred from making legitimate legal claims because the statute of limitations for such matters had expired.

In fact, the other three Defendants also are barred because they had previously signed agreements waiving any and all legal claims against PIOLIN or his former employer, UNIVISION, a fact which their attorneys certainly knew or should have known. Without any hope of resolving the claims legitimately, their demands amounted to civil extortion -- a "naked money grab" through the unlawful use of fear, the lawsuit says.

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