Alycia Lane
In other Lane/Mendte news, Fox 29 meteorologist John Bolaris, a good friend of Lane's, has been lobbying station management to hire her there. While it might be a nice ratings stunt to awkwardly pair her at the anchor desk with Stensland, we're told Lane's hire there is unlikely. A Fox 29 spokeswoman says the station has no news at this time. Meanwhile, Bolaris got a shout-out in an interoffice e-mail sent by Fox 29's Dave Schratwieser praising the station's team effort in covering the Mendte/Lane story on Friday. Apparently, Bolaris texted Lane, who got her attorney, Paul Rosen, to do a live hit with Schrat after his news conference.
The former CBS 3 anchor is now a free woman in New York.
Today is the expiration of the six-month period-of-dismissal of her charges of assaulting a female police officer in New York last December. On Feb. 25 in a New York courtroom, the Manhattan district attorney and Lane's criminal lawyer David Smith agreed to an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal. The court administrator's office confirmed last week that as of today, Lane's New York criminal record should now be clean. While her criminal matter is wrapped up, Lane is still busy in civil court as her wrongful-termination suit against CBS 3, which fired her in January, is ongoing.
This whole episode started five years ago when
Lane's attorney Paul Rosen held his own press conference tonight in which he tore Mendte a new one, calling his behavior "sick and sadistic." Rosen said he refused to discuss any flirtation only Mendte accepting criminal reponsibility. Rosen described Mendte's statement as "an attempt to get good press once more by trying to hurt Alycia Lane." " He has not learned his lesson," Rosen told reporters tonight. Rosen took exception to reports that Mendte will likely not receive jail time and reminded the media that he faces up to five years in prison. Rosen said Mendte must be punished for his actions. When the People Paper's Stu Bykofsky questioned Rosen about Mendte's perceived admission of "adultery", Rosen grew angry, shouting "I didn't hear him say adultery, or sexual affair...He never said one word about an affair" Rosen threatened reporters that anyone who publishes allegations of an affair between Mendte and Lane would be exposed to a lawsuit. Rosen went on to say there were no words Mendte could offer that would possibly undo the harm that he and CBS 3 have caused Lane.
NATAS board members are scheduled to have a conference call today to discuss whether Mendte should be allowed to be nominated or win an Emmy. Nominations will be announced Aug. 5.
Paul Rosen, Lane's attorney, told us yesterday he was unaware of Stern's remarks, but "they are my sentiments exactly.""If they did the right thing that any quality employer should do, they would apologize to her for the harm caused by their employee and her co-anchor, and offer her the job Larry took away from her," Rosen continued by e-mail.
Rosen said that if Lane went back on air, "the old ratings she garnered will be back and her reputation can begin its comeback. It is a win-win for the station and Alycia, and puts the emphasis on the real criminal in this macabre story of Larry's jealous criminal obsession to destroy Alycia."
UPDATE: Read the full story from Kitty Caparella in today's paper.
UPDATE: It's 9:32 AM and we can tell you this is a false alarm. We hope the pack of press are reading this post.
While Larry Mendte and Alycia Lane can no longer be seen on CBS 3, they still appear side-by-side as caricatures among the famous faces at the Palm steakhouse at the Bellevue, as City Paper's Molly Eichel has observed.
