Alycia Lane sues KYW-TV

Alycia Lane today sued KYW-TV, claiming that the station exploited her, tore her down and defamed her on her way out the door.

Seeking unspecified damages, the former anchor alleges in a complaint filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court that KYW management "turned a blind eye" toward leaks of personal information about her and also engaged in a pattern of "deep-seated gender-discriminatory animus" toward her and other female employees.

Besides the station, popularly known as CBS3, station manager Michael Colleran and two defendants known only as John Doe and Jane Doe are named as defendants in the filing by Paul Rosen of Spector Gadon & Rosen.

Lane's erstwhile coanchor, Larry Mendte, is not listed as a defendant. The complaint alleges that Mendte was jealous of her "growing popularity and success" and resented her higher salary. It also claims that Mendte also demeaned Lane when he appeared on the Kidd Chris radio show, a former offering on WYSP (94.1), also a CBS station.

The suit also contends that a double-standard exists at KYW.

Three weeks after the FBI impounded Mendte's computer during an investigation of him for allegedly reading Lane's private e-mail, Mendte is still a station employee.

But two weeks after Lane was arrested in New York and accused of striking a police officer, she was fired. In the complaint, Lane alleges that she was let go even though management had conducted its own investigation that determined she was innocent. In February, felony charges were dropped and Lane and the New York authorities agreed to an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, which will wipe her record clean in August if she stays out of trouble.

Lane claims that in 2004, the station, in a bid to court more female viewers, sent her to Los Angeles to appear on the Dr. Phil show, which KYW also carried. She was encouraged to discuss "some of the previous failed relationships which, to that point, had not been public information." Lane says that she insisted that she review the tape and that "inappropriate personal segments would be deleted."

She begged the station not to air the interview, which turned weepy, she says in the suit. But the station heavily advertised it as a two-night special called "Demons of Divorce." She was instructed to appear again, she says.

Her personal life thereafter "became fodder for tabloid media coverage," the suit says, and she was "branded in the press as someone who sought to make herself the news rather than to merely report the news."

Mendte and Lane started on the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts in September 2003.

A KYW spokeswoman said the station had not seen the complaint and had no further immediate comment.

Mendte's lawyer, Michael Schwartz, said he had not seen the lawsuit and therefore could not comment at this time. "We'll take a look at it and make a determination what, if any, response we would make," he said.