DePetro Suspended After He Speaks About Pending Lawsuit

John DePetro, the WPRO 630 talk show host, was suspended Wednesday after he commented publicly about a lawsuit against him and parent company Cumulus Broadcasting in which a colleague accuses him of sexual harassment.

In an email to RI Future Editor Bob Plain Wednesday afternoon, DePetro told him about the suspension but said he looked "forward to returning to the air on Monday."

Diane "Dee" DeQuattro filed a suit Friday alleging DePetro brought her to a house in Barrington and tried to have sex with her and made other charges.

DePetro released this statement from his lawyer, Tim Dodd:

"John DePetro is completely innocent and is not a party to any misconduct, nor to the allegations made against him. John exects to be completely exonerated of the false allegations made against him. The complaints being made are completely unsubstantiated. The allegations are patently false and we will not give them any credence by further discussing them."

Yesterday, however, DePetro spoke with RI Future's owner/editor Bob Plain and was more candid, despite the gag order that seems to be in place from WPRO's owner, Cumulus Broadcasting.

In an article Wednesday morning on RI Future, Plain (former editor of EG Patch and my02818) wrote, "He said an investigation done by the company has already exonerated him of any wrongdoing. 'Internally, I was cleared,' he told me. 'They did a full investigation.'"

DePetro told Plain that Dee DeQuattro, his accuser, made the accusations to protect herself after she'd made a mistake with a story.

According to Dodd, DePetro's lawyer, DePetro has not yet been "served," i.e. formally notified. A call to the Cumulus office in Atlanta Tuesday went unreturned. Dodd is DePetro's personal lawyer. In cases like this involving both individuals and businesses, the company involved typically hires a lawyer to defend all those named in the suit.