A former assistant to Armstrong Williams, the long business manager and confidant to failed presidential candidate Ben Carson, accused Williams of sexual harassment in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
Charlton Woodyard alleged in a suit filed in federal court in D.C. that he was fired from his position at a TV station in Birmingham, Alabama owned by Williams’ media company because he refused Williams’ sexual advances.
He also named the media company, Howard Stirk Holdings, in the suit and demanded compensation for work that he said Williams, whom he worked for in some capacity from 2013 to April of this year, never paid out.
Williams didn’t immediately respond Wednesday afternoon to TPM’s request for comment.
In the suit, Woodyard stated that Williams wined and dined him around Washington, D.C. and at times treated him as a “confidant.” He alleged their relationship extended into Williams’ time serving as Carson’s adviser during the 2016 campaign and claimed Williams described Carson as “slow” and “naive.”
Williams offered to assist in Woodyard’s business ventures and offered him a job working at a HSH-owned TV station in Las Vegas, Woodyard alleged, but reneged after he refused the businessman’s sexual advances.
Woodyard alleged that when he went to discuss his future at HSH companies and other business ventures at Williams’ home in November 2015, the conversation moved to Williams’ bedroom, where he allegedly grabbed Woodyard’s penis through his pants, commented on the size of his genitals and asked how much it would cost to have sex with him.
Woodyard claimed that he later was terminated from his employment from the HSH-owned TV station in Birmingham for refusing Williams’ advances. The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages as well as attorney fees.
Williams had also been accused of sexually harassing an aide in 1997 in a case that eventually was settled out of court.
