Crawley Lawsuit Thrown Out

The Tribune-Review reported Friday a long-running age discrimination lawsuit filed by former KDKA-TV feature reporter Dave Crawley against the station was thrown out on Friday. Crawley filed the lawsuit against KDKA and Viacom CBS (now Paramount) after an assignment in August, 2017 left him injured.

Crawley, who had been with the station from 1988 until 2018, was injured when he was covering a “flugtag” event being held at the Three Rivers Regatta. In this event, participants used any object to “take flight” from a 22-foot pier and land in the river. The reporter’s attempt left him with injuries to his spleen, diaphragm and a traumatic brain injury. He returned to work 10 days later only to collapse while out on another assignment and hasn’t been able to work since.

The station did not renew Crawley’s contract in 2018 which meant the worker’s compensation for which he filed after the incident was also canceled. In his 2020 lawsuit filing, he argued the station retaliated against him for filing for the worker’s comp as well as age discrimination citing that a younger staffer was being treated better than he was.

The judge opined that KDKA had every right not to renew Crawley’s contract as he admitted inability to work, In regard to the age discrimination, there was no proof available.