Neil Portnow, the former president and CEO of the Grammys, is accused of rape in the lawsuit.

Neil Portnow, the former president and CEO of the Recording Academy – the organization that produces the Grammy Awards – has been accused in a 2018 New York case of raping a woman.

According to the complaint filed Wednesday in New York State Supreme Court and obtained by CNN, the incident occurred in Portnow’s New York City hotel room in June 2018 when the plaintiff and Portnow met over a work-related matter.

The woman, who is not identified in the complaint, alleges that Portnow sexually assaulted her after she became “unconscious and incapacitated” after drinking a glass of wine Portnow gave her and eventually Fainted.

She is suing Portnow for alleged sexual battery and sexual solicitation, and the Recording Academy for negligent hiring, supervision and retention.

CNN has reached out to a representative for the plaintiffs for comment.

In a statement to CNN, Portnow’s representative denied the allegations, calling them “a figment of Plaintiff’s imagination and no doubt in compliance with Mr. Portnow’s outrageous demands for money and assistance in obtaining a residency visa for Plaintiff.” encouraged by refusal to do.”

“We continue to believe the claims are without merit and intend to vigorously defend the Academy in this lawsuit,” a representative for the Recording Academy told CNN in a statement Wednesday.

The plaintiff is described in the complaint as “an internationally renowned musician, inventor, and former member of the Recording Academy.” She was 37 years old at the time of the alleged attack.

She has since suffered “severe emotional, physical and psychological distress, including shame, guilt, economic loss of earning capacity, and emotional harm,” the complaint said.

A prominent figure in the music industry, Portnow served as president and then president and CEO of the Recording Academy from 2002 until his resignation in 2019.

In 2018, she received public backlash and resigned after saying in an interview with Variety that female artists needed to “step up” in response to a question about the lack of female representation at that year’s Grammy Awards ceremony. demanded.

In the interview, Portnow addressed “women who have creativity in their hearts and souls, who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, who want to be producers, and who want to be part of the industry at an executive level”. . Stepping up because I think they will be welcomed. I don’t have personal experience with the kind of brick walls you’re facing but I think it’s up to us — we as an industry — to make the welcome mat very clear…”

At the time, he released a statement to CNN saying his comments were “taken out of context.”