Grammy’s ruling class is trying to shut down a lawsuit before a jury ever hears it, with lawyers for the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences and former CEO Mike Greene asking a Santa Monica judge to toss a former employee’s negligence and assault claims tied to alleged conduct in the mid‑1990s. The filings ramp up pretrial warfare in a case currently set for a 15‑day jury trial in July 2026.
According to MyNewsLA, the Academy has filed a motion asking the court to dismiss the two remaining negligence counts against the organization, while Greene’s legal team submitted a separate request to toss the sexual‑battery, battery and assault causes of action. Both moves land amid ongoing discovery fights and other pretrial skirmishes that are already cluttering the docket.
In their court papers, NARAS attorneys say plaintiff Deborah McIntyre "conceded during her deposition" that she has no personal knowledge or other admissible evidence showing an organizational cover‑up. Greene’s lawyers likewise argue the claims are time‑barred under California’s statutes of limitation, according to the same filings.
What McIntyre Alleges
McIntyre says she was hired as the Academy’s Los Angeles chapter executive director in early 1994 and that Greene sexually assaulted and repeatedly harassed her during her 1994–1996 tenure, including an alleged drugging at a trustees meeting and forced oral sex at Greene’s Malibu home, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. The complaint further alleges the Academy used settlement offers and confidentiality agreements to keep other alleged victims quiet, a claim McIntyre’s lawyers say underpins their negligence and failure‑to‑supervise theories against the organization.
Case Timeline And Court Calendar
The lawsuit landed in court in December 2023. Docket entries show the complaint was filed on Dec. 12, 2023, and the case is set for a 15‑day jury trial beginning July 20, 2026, according to court records reviewed at rulings.law. Pretrial activity so far has included discovery motions and a motion to compel, and the latest dismissal bids add another procedural hurdle before any evidence reaches jurors.
Legal Stakes
Defendants maintain that the key tort claims are time‑barred and that McIntyre cannot revive them without proving an intentional and successful cover‑up by the Academy. That fight over timing and concealment is likely to determine whether the case survives to trial. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, McIntyre brought portions of the case under statutes designed to revive older abuse claims and says she turned down settlement offers that would have required her silence.
With a trial date on the calendar and dueling dismissal motions now pending, the next few weeks of briefs and hearings will decide which claims, if any, make it in front of a Santa Monica jury. Lawyers on both sides are clearly gearing up for a bruising pretrial stretch, so this one is likely to stay in both local and music‑industry headlines as the court calendar grinds forward.
