Hall of Fame broadcaster Dave Platta sues WTVM, alleges discrimination and retaliation
Columbus sports broadcaster Dave Platta, who was inducted Saturday into the Chattahoochee Valley Sports Hall of Fame, has sued the TV station that fired him after he refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Platta’s lawsuit against WTVM and its owner, Gray Media Group, was filed in the Atlanta Division of U.S. District Court.
At 36 years, Platta was the city’s longest-serving TV sports reporter and anchor when he was fired in September 2021 after not complying with Gray’s mandate for its approximately 8,000 employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to the lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, Platta’s lawyer, Jeanne Bynum Hipes of Alpharetta, wrote that his “sincerely held religious beliefs” prohibited him agreeing to receive the “experimental and unapproved” vaccine at the time. The lawsuit claims the vaccine was “known to be derived from aborted human fetal cells.”
Platta, 63, was “forced out” of WTVM “in the most professionally humiliating and illegal manner,” the lawsuit says. The termination broke his three-year contract that was supposed to provide him continued employment through Sept. 3, 2023, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges Platta suffered discrimination and retaliation for the failure to accommodate his religious beliefs. It also alleges breach of contract and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Platta seeks an unspecified amount of “all damages afforded by law, including without limitation, contract damages, back pay, front pay, compensatory damages, punitive damages, interest, attorney’s fees and costs for all the legal wrongs he has suffered at the hands of the Defendant in an amount to be proven at trial,” the lawsuit says.
Attempts by The Ledger-Enquirer to reach WTVM general manager Holly Steuart for comment via phone and email were unsuccessful. This story will be updated after her response is received.
This story was originally published February 7, 2023 at 11:52 AM.
