Two medics with the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad are suing CNN and one of its award-winning international correspondents, Arwa Damon, over a July incident in which Damon allegedly bit them in a drunken rage.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in New York state Supreme Court, claims that Damon has “history of becoming intoxicated and then abusive,” according to the New York Daily News. Plaintiffs Charles Simons and Tracy Lamar, EMTs who were working for a private contractor, alleged in the suit that they were providing assistance to an intoxicated Damon when she bit and threatened them while saying that she was a “major reporter for CNN.”
“She was biting them both pretty furiously. She has good teeth,” the medics’ attorney, David Jaroslawicz, told the newspaper. “Eventually they subdued her.”
The medics are seeking $1 million in damages, according to the Daily News. But CNN said it wasn’t aware of the lawsuit.
“We are not aware of the alleged lawsuit and therefore have no comment,” a CNN spokesman told the newspaper.
Damon apologized to embassy staff the day after the July 19 incident in an email obtained by the Daily News and Page Six.
“It’s been an extremely stressful time, I was exhausted, I had not had proper food all day and clearly miscalculated how my body would handle the alcohol consumed,” she wrote in the email. “Needless to say, I am utterly mortified and take full responsibility for my actions, which are inexcusable.”
Damon added that she was “beyond embarrassed” and hadn’t been fully aware of her behavior.
