CNN
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A judge has suspended the ongoing trial against Linda McMahon, the wife of Donald Trump. chosen to lead the Ministry of Educationwhich accuses her and the company she once managed, World Wrestling Entertainment, of failing to act on allegations of sexual abuse of children who helped ringside at wrestling events in the 1980s.
Maryland Federal District Court Judge James Bredar’s ruling in the WWE case will keep proceedings against McMahon and the company at bay until a decision by the Maryland Supreme Court, which heard arguments in September.
The lawsuit raises questions about what McMahon knew and when, at the time, she was running the professional wrestling company and a ringside announcer allegedly preyed on underage boys. The pause could potentially delay the case until any Senate confirmation proceedings for McMahon, who denies the allegations.
THE recent case after Maryland changed its law to lift the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse lawsuits. But the Maryland Supreme Court is expected to rule on a challenge to the law by other organizations that have been sued and say they should not have to face allegations that they turned a blind eye to abuses by years after they occurred.
The suit alleges that McMahon, her husband, WWE and TKO Group Holdings, the league’s parent company, knowingly allowed employee Melvin Phillips Jr. of using his position as a ringside announcer to sexually exploit children. Lawyers for both McMahons have called the accusations against them false.
World Wrestling Entertainment and its parent company requested earlier this month to suspend proceedings against them, McMahon and her husband Vince for reasons of “judicial efficiency and economics.” They also say they plan to challenge Maryland’s law allowing the trial, should the case against them move forward, according to the court filing.
The suit was filed in October in Baltimore County, Maryland, on behalf of five John Does, who say they were between the ages of 13 and 15 when Phillips met them and recruited them to work as “Ring Boys,” who helped create and dismantle wrestling rings. during WWE events.
Each of them claims to have suffered mental and emotional abuse as a result of the alleged abuse.
Phillips worked for WWE in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s as a “prominent ringside announcer and team leader.” He died in 2012.
The lawsuit claims the McMahons were negligent as employers and failed to protect the plaintiffs, and that they knew of Phillips’ alleged abuse. Vince McMahon said he and Linda knew from the early mid-1980s that Phillips had a “peculiar and unnatural interest” in young boys, according to the filing, and at one point Phillips was fired from the company, then rehired. a few weeks later.
CNN’s John Towfighi contributed to this report.