A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has denied a motion filed by NBCUniversal, Bravo and Mountain View Productions (the production company behind Bravo’s Below Deck) to force into arbitration the claims of former ‘Below Deck’ camera operator Grey Duddleston, who is accusing the defendants of covering up former cast member Gary King’s alleged sexual misconduct, Deadline reports.
Judge Wendy Chang issued her ruling last week after hearing Grey’s claims in late January, in which he cited the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021, which reportedly allows victims of sexual assault or harassment to bypass arbitration agreements and to pursue their claims in court.
Grey filed the lawsuit in March 2025 along with Samantha Suarez– who provided hair and makeup services for Season 4 of Below Deck Sailing Yacht in 2023– against the defendants and cast member Gary for allegations including sexual battery, retaliation, harassment and negligent hiring, retention and supervision.
The lawsuit includes an incident that allegedly occurred while filming Season 4 of ‘Below Deck Sailing Yacht,’ when both Samantha and Grey, who were dating at the time, were working on the show’s crew. As The Ashley previously told you, Samantha alleged in an August 2023 interview with Rolling Stone that Gary accosted and restrained her while he was drunk after doing interviews for the show.
Following the incident, Samantha said she reached out to the show’s higher-ups and Bravo executives to tell them what happened, while informing them that she was no longer willing to do Gary’s hair and makeup. While the execs allegedly offered to fire Gary, Samantha said she didn’t want the responsibility put on her. Instead, Gary was removed from the hotel and required to sleep on the boat.
Gary reportedly admitted to the accusations Samantha made against him when questioned by production, at which point he was warned that he would be fired from the show if further misconduct occurred.
In the Rolling Stone article, Gary was also accused by anonymous crew members of grabbing a female cast member’s butt and continuing to “touch her inappropriately,” even after she told him to stop. Another claimed that Gary grabbed a crew member’s genitals, as well as the genitals of a male camera operator. (It is unknown if the claim about the male camera operator is referring to Grey or another camera operator that worked on the show at the time.)
In the lawsuit, Grey claimed that while filming Season 4, he witnessed Gary untie the bikini tops of two female cast members without their consent, make lewd remarks to a female audio tech, as well as grab the genitals of two male camera operators– similar to an anonymous claim made in the Rolling Stone article.
“[Grey] reported these incidents, per standard operating procedure, over the crew walkie-talkie system,” the lawsuit states. “Rather than terminate [Gary], [production company] 51 Minds (alongside the studio, NBC) opened an investigation against [Grey] for inappropriate use of the walkie-talkie system.”
The suit goes on to state that Samantha and Grey “believe” and “allege” that while the production company had decided to fire Gary following Season 4, they were “overruled by NBC, which did not want to sacrifice its cash cow for the sake of two crew members.”
Another hearing is scheduled for April 28, during which the defense will reportedly attempt to have Samantha’s claims dismissed, as they are claiming that the Georgia resident cannot sue in the state of California, due to her claims involving an alleged incident that took place on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
Gary has yet to comment on the recent ruling; however, after the claims against him were reported in 2023, he took to social media to defend himself, insisting that Samantha’s claims were “so far from the truth” and claiming that she “always wanted a platform.” He also addressed the anonymous sources who spoke to Rolling Stone about his alleged misconduct.
“Please tell me who I’ve harassed from [‘Below Deck’] … if I did I’m sure they would’ve said something and not some random person,” he wrote in a since-deleted comment. “Please can you tell me where I have sexually harassed multiple women … you’re watching the wrong show pal.”
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(Photos: Bravo; Instagram)
