Pablo Luna
Actress Sheryl Lee Ralph has revealed on a podcast show that a randy TV judge sexually assaulted her by ramming his tongue down her throat. Ralph told Angela Yee while on her podcast show to promote his new book Diva 2.0 that this incident happened some years before many witnesses.
The motivational speaker and singer did not mention the name of the “famous TV judge” or the name of the TV network where she worked at the time. But she clarified that it was not Judge Greg Mathis, but another randy judge, who ought to face the music for his misdemeanor. Obviously upset as she recalled the incident, Ralph said the man grabbed her from behind and forcefully kissed her.
“I’m at a very public place,” she said. “I was suited. I had my suit on. I was handling my business for the television show I was on at that time. He and I were on the same network. This man walked in, grabbed me by the back of my neck, turned me around, and rammed his nasty ass tongue down my throat. And everybody at the network saw it.”
The Dreamgirls star and Abbott Elementary Emmy award winner said she was so miffed by the assault that she immediately called up the former mayor of New Orleans, Marc Morial, who demanded to send a team of police officers to be to the network. The fact that Ralph mentioned Morial indicated that the incident must have happened between 1994 and 2002, and she was featured on UPN’s sitcom Moesha at this time.
While speaking with the mayor on the phone, Ralph said a TV executive tapped her on the shoulder and warned her to not invite the police. She said the executive said that being kissed without permission is not as bad as it seemed and that calling the police would give the new show she was handling bad publicity.
“They did not want any bad press around their show, and did not care what had just happened to me,” she stated. “That’s the kind of stuff that happens. That’s what makes it hard for women to speak up about these things.”
The 66-year-old actress said the incident with the randy TV judge was not the only sexual assault that happened to her. She said there was an incident where a man she barely knew also assaulted her by touching her inappropriately. She said she came across the man again at dinner, and she confronted him about the incident, but people at the table condemned her for speaking up.
“It’s horrible,” she said. “It’s like I can think about these things and I’ll tell you, it was like the third time something like this had happened to me. “Years later, I was in a situation where that man walked through the door, and he sat down at the table across from me. I had to confront him about it. I had to let him know what he did that night.
“Do you want to know what was the shocking part? Everybody around the table was appalled that I would stand up for myself. They told me that I should be ashamed of myself, and why would I even bring that up, and at the dinner table.”
