Fired Jets employee alleges retaliation over sexual harassment claim, but team says it was plot to ruin top exec’s life

A former Jets vice president filed a lawsuit against the team this week, claiming she was wrongly fired in retaliation this summer as the organization dealt with allegations of sexual harassment against team president Hymie Elhai.

But the Jets are sharply denying those claims, alleging the former executive was involved in a conspiracy, along with her husband – a former team employee who was also fired – to ruin the reputation of Elhai and force him out of the job.

The team says it plans to file countersuits against both former employees – and others – for defamation and libel, alleging an extensive investigation not only cleared Elhai, but revealed the allegations had been fabricated.

“The allegations of harassment were not only baseless,” the Jets said in a statement, “but the email at the center of the allegations was part of a deliberate and unlawful conspiracy of then-current and former Jets employees.”

In a lawsuit, filed Thursday and first obtained by NorthJersey.com, former vice president of finance Elaine Chen said an anonymous email was sent in July to several senior Jets employees accusing Elhai of sending “inappropriate” messages to “various women on staff” and making other inappropriate remarks. Chen’s husband, former vice president of ticket sales, was one of the recipients.

In her lawsuit, Chen alleged the Jets’ investigation into the misconduct was centered around discovering the source of the email and “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 claimed in the lawsuit, which didn’t directly name Fitzpatrick, that the Jets “interrogated” her husband after he was included among the email’s recipients, and that he was fired after he “confirmed” the allegations of sexual harassment – the suit claimed he hadn’t previously disclosed them out of fear for his job.

But the Jets said their extensive investigation, which included multiple third-parties, revealed that another former employee who wrote the anonymous email acknowledged the allegations against Elhai were untrue, and that they had worked with Fitzpatrick create the email. The team said Fitzpatrick lied about his involvement in the email, and that he obstructed their investigation by deleting more than 4,000 text messages, including some that outlined a scheme to get Elhai ousted and connected Chen to that plan.

Chen said in the lawsuit that when the team asked her about the email, she told them she had no connection to it outside of her relationship with her husband, and no “first-hand” knowledge of the allegation, but had heard about instances of Elhai’s alleged harassment. She said in the lawsuit the Jets fired her six days later because she “failed to put the said the team fired her six days later for “failing to put the company’s interest at the forefront of [her] decision making when ... faced with a personal conflict of interest.”

Chen’s suit claimed she was discriminated against because of her marriage, and the Jets’ decision to fire her in retaliation was a violation against New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination – noting that other employees who received the anonymous email were not fired.

But the Jets dismissed that notion, saying Chen’s lawsuit omitted evidence that would have implicated her for her role in trying to oust Elhai, who has been the team president since 2019 and employed by the Jets since 2000.

“Ms. Chen’s legal claims of marital status discrimination and retaliation are meritless, legally and factually,” the Jets said in a 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.”

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