SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico-FAMILY members of Puerto Rico’s former welterweight champ Miguel Cotto have vehemently denied an allegation of sexual harassment leveled against him.
A greater than US $500 000 lawsuit was filed against Cotto by a former employee at one of his residences in Puerto Rico, Martha Chacon Acevedo.
The Venezuelan-born Chacon alleges in the lawsuit that Cotto made unwanted sexual advances toward her for many months in 2008. It also claims that Chacon entered a relationship with Cotto for fear of losing her job and then was fired in October 2008 after she ended the affair.
According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit was filed with the U. S. district court in San Juan on August 24 and a statement from Cotto’s family has lashed out at the action as “frivolous, empty and a total fabrication”.
“We are going to leave everything in our lawyers’ hands and everything will be resolved in court,” Cotto’s father, Miguel Cotto Carrasquillo, said in a written statement.
The announcement of the lawsuit comes at a low point for the fighter, whose ability to continue at the highest level of boxing came into question after his 12-round, November 14 loss of the WBO welterweight title to Manny Pacquiao.
Cotto rose to global fame when he defeated Kelson Pinto for the WBO junior welterweight championship in 2004 and successfully defended the belt six times over a two year period. Undefeated, Cotto moved up to the welterweight division and continued to dominate, winning the vacated WBA welterweight championship in December of 2006.
After winning the title, Cotto remained undefeated through four title defenses until he lost a controversial bout to Antonio Margarito in June 2008.
The fighter made a mild rebound in 2009 by successfully earning the vacant WBO welterweight after a technical knockout of Michael Jennings. He successfully defended the title against Joshua Clottey four months later before losing to Pacquiao.
