Professional golfer Tiger Woods has been accused of sexual harassment by his longtime girlfriend, Erica Herman, according to court filings made by Herman's attorney in Florida on Friday. The court document alleges that Woods pursued a sexual relationship with Herman while she was an employee at his South Florida restaurant, The Woods Jupiter, and then forced her to sign a non-disclosure agreement or risk losing her job. Herman's attorney argues that this constitutes sexual harassment.
The court papers also contain allegations that Woods tricked Herman into leaving her home, locked her out, took her cash, pets, and personal possessions, and tried to coerce her into signing a different NDA when he became unhappy with their relationship. The document further alleges that, last year, Woods asked Herman to pack for a weekend getaway to the Bahamas, only to have her driven to the airport and told that she was not going anywhere and would never see Woods again. Herman was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which she refused to do.
This is not the first legal complaint that Herman has brought against Woods. Last October, she filed a suit alleging that a trust owned and created by the golf star violated the Florida Residential Landlord Tenant Act by breaking her oral tenancy agreement to continue living in Woods' home. As part of that suit, a trustee of Woods' trust, Christopher Hubman, has asked the court to order Herman to arbitrate her claims pursuant to an arbitration provision in a non-disclosure agreement she signed in 2017. In an earlier briefing, Herman cited a statute that says plaintiffs in sexual harassment or assault disputes cannot be compelled to arbitrate those claims.
In March of this year, Herman filed a separate suit arguing that the 2017 agreement is not enforceable in part because of a new federal law invalidating arbitration clauses in sexual assault or sexual harassment cases.
The allegations against Woods come in the wake of the #MeToo movement, which has highlighted widespread sexual harassment and assault in many industries, including sports.