Indianapolis Colts cheerleader fired after Playboy incident sues team claiming race and gender discrimination
Malori Wampler, former cheerleader for the Indianapolis Colts, is suing the franchise, claiming that she was wrongly fired for photos that she took for
Playboy, a men’s magazine that contains nude photos of women.
Wampler filed the lawsuit in district court last week and said that the team fired her for violating the cheerleading squad’s morals clause after photos she took for
Playboy were sent to the team anonymously by a concerned fan.
The 26-year old was wearing body paint in the pictures and she admits that she has taken photos for the magazine but has never posed nude. Wampler also said that she has served as a host for
Playboy’s golfing events and attended a party at Playboy Mansion. She says that the anonymous photos were from before she joined the Colts and that they were not published, she wasn’t compensated and her name has no affiliation with them.
Kimberly Jeselskis, Wampler’s attorney, said that she was surprised after the Colts fired her client.
"Prior to the time she was hired, she was forthcoming to the Colts about her affiliation with Playboy," Jeselskis said Wednesday. "They said that wasn't an issue, that wasn't something they were concerned with, so they hired her to be a cheerleader.
She's had no further affiliation with Playboy since before she started cheering."
She also said that her client was being treated unfairly, since Colts players had trouble with the law in recent years but were not released from the team as Wampler was.
"There are players who, in our opinion, get away with things that are much worse than what she was terminated for, and they aren't disciplined or removed," Jeselskis said.
The lawsuit claims that she was fired due to race and gender discrimination, because she is an Indonesian female. Jeselskis said that a white cheerleader posed for provocative photos while with the team in 2010 but was not disciplined and has made the squad
for the 2011 season. Wampler said that her private parts were covered in the pictures in question and that white cheerleaders were not fired for “much sexier pictures.”
She says that she did nothing wrong and did not break the Colts’ code of conduct that prohibits behaviour that “will or may create notoriety.”
Colts’ general counsel Dan Emerson said that Wampler’s lawsuit does not have any merit, saying that she does not have a case and that it is “a very sad situation that it’s gone as far as it has.”
Wampler is seeking the reinstatement of her job, damages, legal fees and lost wages in the lawsuit.
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