Alycia Lane (born May 10, 1972) is an American television journalist. She serves as weekday morning anchor at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. Until January 2008, she was co-anchor of the weekday evening newscasts on KYW-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Lane's contract with KYW-TV was terminated following controversies regarding her off-screen private life.

Background [link]

Lane, a native of Lake Grove, New York, is of Puerto Rican descent on her mother's side and Welsh descent on her father's. She has a master's degree in Broadcast Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and an undergraduate degree from the State University of New York at Albany, where she graduated with honors. She is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and speaks fluent Spanish.^[2] Alycia Lane has been married twice.

Career [link]

Lane's television career began while completing her Master's at Northwestern University, serving as a Washington, D.C.-based reporter for KSNT in Topeka, Kansas.^[2] After completing her studies, she returned to her native New York and joined Cablevision-owned News 12 the Bronx, where she served as an anchor and reporter.^[2] Among the stories she covered there was the 1999 shooting of African immigrant Amadou Diallo, who was shot to death by four New York City police officers.

In 2000, Lane moved to Miami, after being hired as a reporter for Fox affiliate WSVN. She joined a rival station, NBC-owned WTVJ a year later, and spent two years there before moving to Philadelphia and CBS-owned KYW-TV in September 2003.^[2] KYW-TV paired her with Larry Mendte on their 11 o'clock newscast, and by early 2004 had experienced "an amazing 61%" rise in the show's ratings.^[3] In 2005, she was awarded a local Emmy Award for her "Holiday Traditions" special.^[2][4]

Lane moved to Los Angeles in July 2009 and was hired by NBC affiliate KNBC on August 18. She debuted on the air August 29 in the weekend evening anchor chair, replacing Kim Baldonado, who was promoted to KNBC's weekday 11 a.m. newscast and the investigative report show News Extra.^[5] In February 2010, Lane became co-anchor of Today in LA on KNBC.

Controversies [link]

Bikini pictures [link]

In May 2007, Lane became the center of a national media story when reports surfaced that she emailed pictures of herself and friends, in bikinis, to the NFL Network's Rich Eisen, via an account that he shared with his wife, Suzy Shuster. Shuster's email response became public.^[6][7] Lane insisted that the pictures were harmless^[8] and that she and Eisen have been "purely platonic" friends "for almost 10 years", and that they "regularly exchange e-mail and photos".^[9] In June 2010, CBS released emails between Lane and Eisen that suggested something more than a friendly relationship. The emails were released as part of a pre-trial motion in Lane's wrongful termination suit against CBS.^[10]

Assault charges [link]

Lane was arrested in the early morning hours of December 16, 2007 in New York City, accused of physically and verbally assaulting a female police officer, as well as making homophobic comments, calling the officer a "fucking dyke".^[11] Lane was charged with one felony count of assault on a police officer.^[12][13][14] The criminal case was effectively closed on February 25, 2008, when a New York judge dropped the felony assault charges against her and reduced Lane's charges to misdemeanors. The case was then adjourned, with an additional provision that the charges against Lane would be dropped on the condition that she is not arrested, at any time, over the next six months.^[15] A New York City Police Association expressed "outrage" over the reduction and dismissal of charges against Lane.^[16]

Dismissal from KYW-TV [link]

On January 7, 2008, KYW-TV announced that Lane had been released from her contract. In a statement, the station explained that the decision to terminate Lane, stating:

After assessing the overall impact of a series of incidents resulting from judgments she has made...we have concluded that it would be impossible for Alycia to continue to report the news as she, herself, has become the focus of so many news stories.^[17]

Lane's legal counsel, Paul Rosen, subsequently released a statement which challenged the station's reasoning:

The termination comes at a time when there has been absolutely no determination that Alycia is guilty of any wrongful conduct, and after KYW-TV has aired her categorical denial of the alleged charge that is pending against her. The termination is unfair because Alycia has never had an opportunity to defend against this charge, and tell her side of the story publicly, before KYW-TV has taken this unusual and unwarranted step to terminate her employment.^[18]

On January 30, 2008, Lane's lawyers filed a writ of summons on her behalf, a preemptive move towards a lawsuit against KYW-TV in connection with her dismissal.^[19][20] On February 19, 2008, lawyers for CBS, KYW-TV's parent company, sought to move Lane's state court writ to the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, though a provision in Lane's contract which stated that employment disputes were to be handled in New York, where the network is headquartered.^[21]

On June 19, 2008, Lane filed suit against KYW-TV and station manager Michael Colleran alleging that she was exploited and defamed. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. A spokeswoman for KYW-TV had no comment on the pending litigation.^[1]

E-mail incident [link]

On May 31, 2008, it was reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer Alycia Lane's co-anchor was under investigation by the FBI for allegedly reading Lane's private e-mail, which is a federal offense. Larry Mendte is allegedly responsible for feeding her private information to gossip columnists over the years including Dan Gross of the Philadelphia Daily News^[22] and violating attorney/client privilege in doing so during her New York legal problems and pending lawsuit against KYW.^[23] Mendte was dismissed by the station on June 23, 2008.^[24] On July 21, 2008, Mendte was charged with one felony count of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization. In August 2008 Mendte pleaded guilty and in November 2008 he was sentenced to three years probation, six months home confinement, 250 hours community service, computer monitoring, psychiatric evaluation, a $5,000 fine and a $100 special assessment.^[25]

References [link]