Jared Goetz Out As President Of North American TV Distribution At Lionsgate Following “One Time Incident”

Nellie Andreeva
·3 min read

Jared Goetz, an accomplished distribution executive, has resigned as president of North American Television Distribution at Lionsgate after more than three years.

According to sources, Goetz was involved in an incident a couple of weeks ago, involving him carrying a firearm to an out-of-the-office work meeting with a colleague for personal protection.

In a statement released through his attorney Bryan Freedman (read it below), Goetz revealed that he “had his home burglarized and during the pandemic was attacked in his car while at a stop light,” and he had the gun in his car on the day of the incident because he was planning to go to a shooting range for training after work. The gun remained in the car while Goetz was in the office though still on Lionsgate premises; it was on him — but not visible — during the lunch meeting in question.

The incident came to the attention of Lionsgate’s senior management, which investigated the conduct and concluded that it was a breach of company policy. Goetz and Lionsgate, where he was well regarded, ultimately agreed that he would leave.

In the statement, Freedman stresses that this was “one-time incident” and that “Jared has always been a model employee” who “has had tremendous success while at Lionsgate.”

Goetz, a 22-year veteran from the Walt Disney Company, joined Lionsgate in August 2017 to head a team responsible for licensing Lionsgate and Starz content across all broadcast, cable, pay TV, subscription VOD and other digital platforms in the U.S. and Canada.

Prior to that, Goetz was SVP Pay Television & Digital Sales, and General Sales Manager SVOD, for Disney/ABC Home Entertainment and Television Distribution. He was part of the leadership team distributing all of the Disney companies’ film and television properties to an array of media platforms and businesses.

Here is the statement:

Jared had his home burglarized and during the pandemic was attacked in his car while at a stop light on Reseda Boulevard. He owned a hand gun that was properly licensed. Consistent with past actions, he had plans to go to the shooting range after work and train with Officer Daryl Scoggins of the West Valley police department.

As Lionsgate confirmed, this was a one time incident, wherein he never took the gun into the office nor did he remove it from the lock box in the car while he was at work. He never showed it to anyone nor did he threaten or let anyone even see it. It was properly and legally secured and there was no one else who had ever seen it.

Jared has always been a model employee. He has never been involved in anything even close to disciplinary action in more than 25 years of working for companies He is well liked and an honorable person. He never intended in any way to make anyone uncomfortable nor did he do anything illegal In fact, there are no allegations that he attempted to scare or threaten anyone. While he has reasons for self protection, he is terribly sorry for this matter and realizes while the gun was properly secured in his vehicle, leaving it in his car in the parking lot was against company policy.

He has had tremendous success while at Lionsgate which has led to him being approached with other incredible opportunities. He is focusing on those opportunities and wishes that this was not such a difficult and unsafe time for everyone.

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