An attorney for recently suspended “Wheel of Fortune” announcer Jim Thornton has addressed an anonymously sourced TMZ report that the entertainer had been spotted on an airplane participating in a chatroom for people with pedophilic thoughts.
Thornton was trying to access a suicide prevention chatroom but was “misdirected to a forum with a similar URL,” his attorney Allison Hart said in a statement obtained by USA Today.
Her client became “active in suicide-prevention advocacy since losing a close family member to suicide two years ago, and he has spent time visiting chat rooms offering support to individuals suffering from suicidal ideation,” her statement said, per TMZ.
She added that the chatroom was “not unlawful,” and that “my client never viewed, downloaded or consumed any child pornography whether on that commercial flight in May or at any other time.”
Earlier this week, Sony Pictures Television said it had suspended Thornton, who had been on the popular game show since 2011, after being made aware of “allegations” concerning the longtime announcer.
Eric McCandless/Disney via Getty Images
Sony reps did not disclose why Thornton was being suspended, but TMZ cited an anonymous source saying it was due to an incident aboard an American Airlines flight in May.
Hart said earlier this week that after a fellow passenger made a complaint about Thornton, officers greeted him when the plane landed and questioned him for about five minutes before letting him go.
Neither Hart nor Sony Pictures Television immediately responded to a request for comment from JS.
“Wheel of Fortune” has its season premiere Sept. 14, and producers are reportedly trying to recast Thornton’s role and remove him from already filmed episodes.