Ex-'General Hospital' Star Ingo Rademacher Reveals New Bombshell Evidence In Discrimination Battle With ABC Over Vaccinations
Aug. 30 2022, Published 1:30 p.m. ET
Ex-General Hospital star Ingo Rademacher has rushed to court in his battle with the American Broadcast Company (ABC) claiming he obtained shocking new evidence, RadarOnline.com has learned.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, last year, Rademacher sued ABC (owned by the Walt Disney Company) for discrimination.
In his lawsuit, the actor said he was fired from his role as Jasper ‘Jax’ Jacks after 25 years due to him refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccination.
Rademacher said he had asked for a religious exemption but was let go. The actor’s lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
ABC has denied all allegations of wrongdoing and said its decision to fire Rademacher was proper.
A lawyer for the network wrote, “[ABC] had an honest, good-faith belief that all decisions with respect to [Ingo] were made by [ABC] solely for legitimate, business-related reasons.”
Further, the network argued if it had made an accommodation to the vaccination policy it could have created or increased a health/safety risk for other employees.
ABC said it had "not acted in a manner highly offensive to a reasonable person and/or [Ingo] was not harmed by any such intrusion. The network asked the court to dismiss the entire lawsuit.
In a new filing, Ingo said his legal team has uncovered shocking internal ABC communications. He obtained the documents as part of discovery in the case where both parties exchange requested files.
Ingo said, “ABC produced documents that show the company decided to fire Ingo before it even adopted the vaccination policy because he did not share the company’s preferred political and social views. Ingo did not learn about these actions until he received the documents in discovery.”
The actor said the network’s claim he was fired for the vaccine was “a ruse.” He said the documents produced show ABC had plans to terminate his contract by the summer of 2021, before ABC issued the mandatory vaccination policy.
Ingo claimed the documents show General Hospital producers were speaking about his last day of shooting while the company was still talking to him about accommodating his objections to the vaccination policy.
“Put simply, ABC did not fire Ingo because he did not perform the essential functions of his job. It fired him because it disagreed with political and social views he espoused. It fired him because he did not share the company’s preferred political and social views. That violates the California Labor Code and constitutes a breach of Ingo’s employment agreement,” his lawyer wrote.
Rademacher asked the court for permission to amend his lawsuit with the new details. The trial is scheduled for February. ABC has yet to respond to the actor’s latest accusations.