Dr. Phil Sued by Former Employee for False Imprisonment, Wrongful Termination

Robert Kessler
·Editor
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Dr. Phil (Photo: Getty Images)

Dr. Phil McGraw, who is, again, a Ph.D. and not a licensed psychologist, is being sued by a former employee of his eponymous show who claims the doctor — not a psychologist — locked 300 employees in a room and berated them after one leaked information about the show’s machinations to the press.

In the court documents, which People has obtained, former employee Leah Rothman claims that on Wednesday, March 11, 2015, her day off, she was called into the Dr. Phil studio and escorted to a room with around 300 other Dr. Phil employees. Once there, Rothman claims McGraw had security guards lock them in the room and forced the employees to hand over their cell phones.

“If you f**k with me, I’ll f**k with you,” McGraw allegedly said.

McGraw, his production company, and CBS are all listed in the suit.

It’s not immediately clear what press leak this meeting was in reference to, however, in March 2015, on the very same day as the meeting in question, Dr. Phil aired a much hyped interview with Nick Gordon, the boyfriend of Whitney Houston’s late daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown.

Related: What We Learned From Nick Gordon’s ‘Dr. Phil’ Interview-Turned-Intervention

In her suit, Rothman alleges that McGraw already knew who was responsible for the leak, but just wanted to scare his employees straight. She also claims that he read from cue cards during the meeting, which is less a crime and more a hilariously pathetic detail.

Rothman says that after the meeting, she met with a CBS HR representative who was, at the time, sympathetic, but then ignored her repeated requests for a follow-up meeting.

Rothman, who worked on the show as a segment director since 2003, says the working environment had become so toxic that she had to quit. In her suit, she’s seeking damages for false imprisonment, emotional distress, whistle blower retaliation, and wrongful constructive termination.

Yahoo has reached out to a representative for Dr. Phil for comment.