According to the court document, Tiger Woods is accused of sexual harassment by his ex-girlfriend
(CNN) Erica Hermann, who was a longtime friend of professional golfer Tiger Woods, has accused the 15-time major champion of sexual harassment, according to a memo filed Friday by Hermann’s attorney in Florida.
According to the document, Woods was accused of pursuing a sexual relationship with Hermann while working for him and then forced her to sign a non-disclosure agreement or be fired from her job.
Hermann was an employee of his South Florida restaurant, The Woods Jupiter, at the time.
“Tiger Woods, a world-famous athlete and one of the most powerful figures in world sport, decided to pursue a sexual relationship with his employee, and then – according to him – forced her to sign a non-disclosure agreement or be fired from the service,” a court document said Friday. sex, tricked her into leaving her home, locked her up, took her money, pets, and personal belongings, and tried to force-arm her into signing a different non-disclosure agreement.”
“A boss who imposes different terms of employment on his employee because of his sexual relationship is sexual harassment,” Hermann’s attorney Benjamin Hobas says in the lawsuit.
CNN reached out to Woods’ representatives for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
The document also alleges that there was a “scheme” used against Hermann last year in which Woods asked her to pack for a weekend in the Bahamas. She was allegedly taken to the airport and then told to speak to Woods’ lawyer.
“Then, out of the blue, Mr. Woods’ attorney in California told her she wasn’t going anywhere, she’d never see Mr. Woods again, she was locked out of the house, and she couldn’t come back,” the document said. “She won’t even get to see the kids or her pets again.”
Herrmann was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which she refused, according to the document.
Hermann has filed two separate complaints involving Woods in the past year.
The first, filed in October 2022, alleges that a trust owned and set up by the golf star violated Florida’s residential landlord law by violating an oral lease agreement to continue living in the Woods’ home.
As part of that lawsuit, Woods Trust trustee Christopher Hopman asked the court to order Hermann to arbitrate her claims under an arbitration provision in a nondisclosure agreement she signed in 2017.
In an earlier briefing, Herrmann cited a law that says plaintiffs in sexual harassment or assault disputes cannot be compelled to arbitrate those claims.
The latest lawsuit, filed in March, Herrmann argues that the 2017 agreement is not enforceable in part because of a new federal law that invalidates arbitration clauses in cases of sexual assault or sexual harassment.
CNN’s Jan Casarez contributed to this report.
