Former Fox News host's rape accuser Jennifer Eckhart pouts in mugshot after being arrested for battery
Jennifer Eckhart, 34, pouted in her mugshot after she was detained in Palm Beach County at 1pm on Wednesday afternoon. She was released on her own recognizance without bail.
According to her arrest affidavit obtained by Daily Mail, Eckhart allegedly attacked her boyfriend, named in the papers as Thomas Beasley, after he told her he was ending their relationship.
Beasley told cops that after he dumped her Eckhart, 'began knocking items over in his office, struck him, screamed, and became combative.'
He showed video of the alleged attack to officers, which the documents said showed her, 'yelling, striking Beasley, grabbing his shirt and ripping it, and demanding he delete the video.'
The arrest comes a month after Eckhart settled a rape lawsuit against Henry, five years after she accused him of sexually assaulting her when they worked at Fox News.
Henry, who denied Eckhart's allegations and said they were in a 'kinky' relationship, was fired weeks before she filed her lawsuit in 2020.
Eckhart alleged in the filings that she was 'violently raped while helpless and restrained in metal handcuffs.'
In March, a federal judge threw out part of the lawsuit that named Fox News as a defendant, dismissing Eckhart's claims that the network failed to take any action against Henry's alleged rape.
Eckhart also claimed that she was fired from Fox News in retaliation for her complaints about the alleged attack, and accused Henry of sharing explicit 'revenge porn' images of her.
Following her settlement with Henry in June, Eckhart spoke of the mental toll that the case had on her, saying it had been an 'exhaustive, retraumatizing, five-year legal battle with incredible challenges that at times I almost felt was unable to bear'.
Eckhart started her own podcast REINVENTED, where she speaks about 'generational trauma' to 'give a voice to the voiceless' in the wake of the process.
She also runs a non-profit named The Reinvented Project, which helps trauma survivors through animal-assisted therapy, per People.
Henry, who now works at Newsmax after he was fired by Fox News, was never charged criminally over Eckhart's allegations.
She was fired in June 2020, two weeks before she made allegations against Henry through an attorney, claiming his 'improper conduct' began around 2014 and culminated in an alleged rape in February 2017.
Henry was subsequently fired after Eckhart came forward with her allegations, and Fox News announced his departure ' based on investigative findings' about his alleged 'willful sexual misconduct.'
When she settled her lawsuit against Henry in June, Eckhart spoke of the mental toll that the case had on her, saying it had been an 'exhaustive, retraumatizing, five-year legal battle with incredible challenges that at times I almost felt was unable to bear'
In a statement through his attorney after settling the lawsuit, Henry's representative said: 'This matter has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties, and the parties are moving on with their lives.'
Eckhart said a civil trail was approaching before the settlement was agreed. The details of the settlement were not reported on at the time.
In her lawsuit against Henry, Eckhart alleged that the anchor handcuffed, beat and raped her.
But Henry insisted that they were in a consensual relationship at the time of the alleged attacks, and said that they were in a kinky affair that involved actions such as handcuffing.
Daily Mail previously revealed the two were engaging in raunchy exchanges.
This included text messages just days after Eckhart claimed the rape occurred, in which she told him: 'You wanna f*** me,' 'Come spread them and slide my bikini off', 'F***ing dirty boy. I love it,' and 'Want it. Badly,' according to screenshots of text messages in court filings.
The legal filing said they had sadomasochistic, kinky sex on February 10, 2017, that was prompted by Eckhart's 'highly provocative sexting'.
The physical encounter involved Henry hitting her with a belt, and restraining her with handcuffs.
Although rough, Henry claimed it was all agreed on beforehand, saying she 'sent Ed a photograph of a belt' and told him in a text message that she would 'always obey and make myself available to u', adding 'You NEED my 26-year-old p***y.'
The day before the sexual encounter, Henry texted Eckhart: 'Gentle little wh**e. Gonna get tossed around like a rag doll,' and she replied 'Love that,' according to the WhatsApp screenshots.
Henry has been married to NPR Managing Editor Shirley Henry since 2010.
Henry countered in a legal filing that Eckhart cherry-picked excerpts of their text conversations to cast him as a rapist when he claimed that it was instead a steamy, consensual affair.
When a federal judge threw out Eckhart's claims against Fox News earlier this year, they ruled that there was 'no direct evidence that (the network) was aware of Henry's alleged harassment of Eckhart before (her firing) occurred.'
Henry countered in a legal filing that Eckhart cherry-picked excerpts of their text conversations to cast him as a rapist when he claimed that it was instead a steamy, consensual affair
Eckhart was an associate producer at Fox News, however her termination came as a result of 'substantial performance deficiencies', the network claimed.
The network said she was fired after being put on a 'performance improvement plan', and her eventual dismissal came before she ever made complaints of her interactions with Henry.
Fox News previously argued that when they fired Eckhart, it was not out of retaliation because she did not come forward with her claims against Henry until after she had been terminated.
The network insisted it had 'legitimate, non-pretextual reasons for terminating her.'
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