A former New York Jets vice president has filed a lawsuit against the team, saying she was fired as part of the franchise’s response to allegations of sexual misconduct against team president Hymie Elhai.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday and obtained by The Athletic on Friday, Elaine Chen, the team’s former vice president of finance, said the Jets retaliated against her and her husband after complaints were made against Elhai.
The Jets responded sharply on Friday, accusing Chen of helping fabricate the accusations against Elhai, which they said were investigated and had no merit. “We are filing legal claims, including defamation and libel against Ms. Chen, her husband, Larry Fitzpatrick, and other parties involved,” the team said in in a statement.
“The allegations of harassment were not only baseless, but the email at the center of the allegations was part of a deliberate and unlawful conspiracy of then-current and former Jets employees, including Ms. Chen and her husband, Mr. Fitzpatrick,” the Jets added.
A lawyer for Chen did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Friday.
Chen said in the lawsuit that an anonymous email was sent to several team employees that accused Elhai of sending inappropriate text messages to various women on staff. The email alleged that Elhai had other moments of misconduct, including inappropriate taunts and comments, according to Chen’s lawsuit.
The Jets said Friday that Chen participated in what they referred to as a “fabricated email” and lied to the company about her involvement. They also said the text messages and interactions attributed to Elhai in the complaint were “grossly over-exaggerated and positioned for the sole purpose of the fabricated narrative.”
When the Jets began investigating who sent the email, Chen said in the lawsuit, they were “targeting anyone who supported the allegations against Elhai and/or the belief that Mr. Elhai’s sexual conduct warranted an actual investigation and/or disciplinary action.”
Chen said in her lawsuit that her husband was forwarded a copy of the anonymously emailed complaint, and was “interrogated” about it by the Jets. The lawsuit said Fitzpatrick “confirmed” the allegations and was soon fired, though it did not detail Fitzpatrick’s assertion or name him directly, referring to him only as Chen’s husband. The Jets named Fitzpatrick directly in their response.
The Jets said the former employee who wrote the original email acknowledged that the allegations against Elhai were not true, and worked with Fitzpatrick to facilitate the email.
New York Jets team president Hymie Elhai, at left, during a news conference in 2023. (Elsa / Getty Images)
Chen said she was asked by the team about the email and said her only connection to the situation was that she was married to her husband. She said she had “no firsthand knowledge” of the alleged harassment, but that she had heard that Elhai harassed female Jets employees, according to the lawsuit.
The Jets, in their statement, accused Fitzpatrick of lying about his role in the anonymous email and obstructing the investigation by deleting more than 4,000 text messages, some of which, the Jets said, outlined a scheme and implicated Chen. The Jets said the lawsuit omits evidence of Chen’s role in the “conspiracy” and contradicts statements she made during their interview.
According to Chen’s lawsuit, the Jets said they were firing her because they could no longer trust her and that she “failed to put the company’s interest at the forefront of (her) decision-making” amid a conflict of interest.
Chen, who accused the team of discrimination, said at least two other employees who received the emailed complaint were not fired.
“Ms. Chen’s legal claims of marital status discrimination and retaliation are meritless, legally and factually,” the Jets said in their statement. “She was fired by the Jets for legitimate and lawful business reasons: specifically, for her egregious misconduct, including the deletion of communications and lies, all in furtherance of an unlawful conspiracy to harm and defame both the organization and Mr. Elhai with the malicious intention of getting him fired, and destroying his reputation and career.”
Elhai has worked in the Jets organization since 2000 and was named the team’s president in 2019.
(Top photo: Nick Cammett / Diamond Images via Getty Images)