New York Mets general manager Jared Porter harassed a foreign female reporter with several inappropriate text messages, including an unsolicited penis photo, according to a report.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Mina Kimes published a story on Monday about the allegations, which come over four years after the incidents took place.
A foreign woman who came to the U.S. to report about baseball claims she met Porter in an elevator in June, 2016. They talked baseball and exchanged information. The woman thought they were exchanging information to keep in touch as a possible source for reporting. Porter apparently had other ideas.
According to the report, which provides screenshots of text messages as proof, Porter began texting the woman that same day they met. Porter sent her multiple messages and photos and kept pushing boundaries more and more after the woman did not push back initially. The woman says she was confused by the behavior, but being in a foreign country and not knowing the culture, she wasn’t sure how to respond.
Eventually, he ended up sending her several photos, including one of a naked penis. Porter now claims that the photo was a stock image, but he sent plenty of other photos to the woman that were of him.
The woman then met with a player and interpreter from her country, who helped her craft a response to tell him to stop.
The woman says she ignored over 60 text messages from Porter before he sent the final lewd photo, according to the report.
The woman considered filing a lawsuit but decided not to. She ultimately returned to her home country and left the journalism field altogether.
ESPN learned of the story in late 2017 and maintained contact with the woman. It wasn’t until recently that she decided she felt comfortable going public with the story.
Porter, 41, was working in the Cubs’ front office at the time of the lewd texting. He joined the Diamondbacks after the 2016 season, and he was hired by the Mets in December as their new general manager. Porter acknowledged to ESPN that he texted with the woman, though he tried to claim the naked photos were not of him. The Mets are reviewing the issue.
