Associated Press
Jan. 1, 1999
SEATTLE (AP) -- The price tag for settling sexual abuse accusations against Jeff Smith, public television's "Frugal Gourmet," was more than $5 million, a newspaper has reported, citing court documents.
The Oregonian outlined terms of two settlements in a story in Thursday' s editions, but Ed Winskill, Smith's lawyer, disputed that characterization in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
Terms of one settlement were not disclosed when it was reached last summer.
Smith agreed to that settlement just before a civil trial was to begin in July in which seven men accused Smith of sexually molested them. Most of the men were teen-age employees of his from 1973 through 1981.
The settlement included no apology or admission of wrongdoing from Smith, a bubbly, white-goateed Methodist minister and 59-year-old father of two grown sons.
The Oregonian reported that insurance companies holding personal liability policies for Smith, his wife, and their parent corporations, The Frugal Gourmet Inc. and Frugal Gourmet Productions Inc., agreed to pay $4.75 million to the plaintiffs. The newspaper cited court documents.
Winskill said one aspect of the agreement to settle was a "stipulated judgment" in the amount of $4.75 million. That figure was contained in papers filed Aug. 11 in Pierce County Superior Court.
But he said that judgment contained no agreement by his client to pay any of that money.
"I won't comment on the settlement except to point out to you that the judgment is not enforceable against any of his property," he told the Oregonian.
As to where the plaintiffs might get the money, Winskill told the AP, "They aren't gonna get it from us. They're going to have to get it from someone but nobody's agreed to pay it to them."
A legal source told the AP that in a stipulated judgment a defendant, such as Smith, could assign his rights to representation from insurers to a third party, such as the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs then would have the right to try to make the insurers pay the specified amount.
F. Mike Shaffer, the Tacoma attorney representing the seven men who sued Smith, told the Oregonian his clients have received a portion of the settlement but not the full amount. He would not tell the Oregonian how much had been received. Shaffer did not return a phone call for clarification Thursday night.
The Oregonian quoted other court documents as showing for the first time that Smith agreed to pay an eighth man $1.5 million in 1991 in exchange for silence about that man's claims of sexual assault. Smith has repeatedly denied that any payments were made.
Winskill refused to discuss that case Thursday night, saying those documents were sealed by the court.
Smith has not been charged with any crime. The statute of limitations on all the alleged offenses has run out. He has denied all of the accusations.
Smith's dozen cookbooks have sold a reported 12 million copies, and his series, the most popular cooking show in history, once was viewed by an estimated 15 million people a week on 300 public TV stations.
Copyright 1999 The Associated Press