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Alycia Lane
Alycia Lane
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Alycia Lane (born May 10, 1972) is an American television journalist. Until October 2013, she served as weekday morning anchor at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. From September 2003 until January 2008, she was co-anchor of the weekday evening newscasts on KYW-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Lane's contract with KYW-TV was terminated shortly after being arrested for allegedly striking a New York police officer and calling her a homophobic slur.

Key Information

Background

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Lane, a native of Lake Grove, New York, is of Puerto Rican descent on her mother's side and Welsh descent on her father's. She has a master's degree in Broadcast Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and an undergraduate degree from the State University of New York at Albany, where she graduated with honors. She is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and speaks fluent Spanish.[1] Lane has been married twice and gave birth to a daughter in June 2014.[2]

Career

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Lane's television career began while completing her master's degree at Northwestern University, serving as a Washington, D.C.–based reporter for KSNT in Topeka, Kansas.[1] After completing her studies, she returned to New York and joined Cablevision-owned News 12 the Bronx, where she served as an anchor and reporter.[1] Among the stories she covered there was the 1999 shooting of African immigrant Amadou Diallo, who was shot to death by four New York City police officers.

In 2000, Lane moved to Miami, after being hired as a reporter for Fox affiliate WSVN. She joined a rival station, NBC-owned WTVJ a year later and spent two years there before moving to Philadelphia and CBS-owned KYW-TV in September 2003.[1] KYW-TV paired her with Larry Mendte on their 11:00 p.m. edition of CBS 3 Eyewitness News. Mendte had been wooed away from rival WCAU-TV where he led the station to #1 in the ratings in some newscast slots for the first time in 30 years. By early 2004 KYW-TV had experienced "an amazing 61%" rise in the show's ratings.[3] In 2005, she was awarded a local Emmy Award for co-hosting the annual "Holiday Traditions" special.[1][4]

After her stint at KYW-TV, Lane moved to Los Angeles in July 2009 and was hired by NBC-owned KNBC on August 18. She debuted on the air on August 29 as anchor of the weekend editions of the Channel 4 News where she replaced Kim Baldonado.[5] In February 2010, Lane became co-anchor of Today in L.A. on KNBC. In 2011, Lane received a National Edward R. Murrow Award for Writing on a special story about a mysterious disorder called 'Angelman Syndrome'. In addition, she has won multiple Emmy Awards at KNBC, along with two Golden Mic Awards.

In October 2013, KNBC announced that Lane was no longer employed by the station.[6]

Scandals

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Bikini pictures

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In May 2007, Lane became the center of a national media story when reports surfaced that she emailed pictures of herself and friends, in bikinis, to the NFL Network's Rich Eisen, via an account that he shared with his wife, Suzy Shuster. Shuster's email response became public.[7] Lane insisted that the pictures were harmless[8] and that she and Eisen have been "purely platonic" friends "for almost 10 years", and that they "regularly exchange e-mail and photos".[9] In June 2010, CBS released emails between Lane and Eisen that suggested something more than a friendly relationship. The emails were released as part of a pre-trial motion in Lane's wrongful termination suit against CBS.[10]

Assault charges

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Lane was arrested in the early morning hours of December 16, 2007, in New York City, accused of physically and verbally assaulting a female police officer, as well as making homophobic comments, calling the officer a "fucking dyke".[11] Lane was charged with one felony count of assault on a police officer.[12][13][14] The criminal case was effectively closed on February 25, 2008, when a New York judge dropped the felony assault charges against her and reduced Lane's charges to misdemeanors. The case was then adjourned, with an additional provision that the charges against Lane would be dropped on the condition that she is not arrested, at any time, over the next six months.[15] A New York City Police Association expressed "outrage" over the reduction and dismissal of charges against Lane.[16]

Dismissal from KYW-TV

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On January 7, 2008, while suspended from KYW-TV for the assault on a New York police officer, the station announced that Lane had been released from her contract. In a statement, the station explained the decision to terminate Lane, stating:

After assessing the overall impact of a series of incidents resulting from judgments she has made ... we have concluded that it would be impossible for Alycia to continue to report the news as she, herself, has become the focus of so many news stories.[17]

Lane's legal counsel, Paul Rosen, subsequently released a statement which challenged the station's reasoning:

The termination comes at a time when there has been absolutely no determination that Alycia is guilty of any wrongful conduct, and after KYW-TV has aired her categorical denial of the alleged charge that is pending against her. The termination is unfair because Alycia has never had an opportunity to defend against this charge, and tell her side of the story publicly, before KYW-TV has taken this unusual and unwarranted step to terminate her employment.[18]

On January 30, 2008, Lane's lawyers filed a writ of summons on her behalf, a preemptive move towards a lawsuit against KYW-TV in connection with her dismissal.[19][20] On February 19, 2008, lawyers for CBS, KYW-TV's parent company, sought to move Lane's state court writ to the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, though a provision in Lane's contract stated that employment disputes were to be handled in New York, where the network is headquartered.[21]

On June 19, 2008, Lane filed suit against KYW-TV and station manager Michael Colleran alleging that she was exploited and defamed. On December 12, 2013, Lane's lawsuit against CBS was dismissed after a hearing determined that Lane purposely destroyed evidence in the case. Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Alan Tereshko ruled that it would be impossible for CBS to defend itself without Lane's laptop. In March, Tereshko also dismissed Lane's lawsuit against Mendte for the same reason.[22]

E-mail incident

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On May 31, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Larry Mendte, Alycia Lane's former co-anchor, was under investigation by the FBI for allegedly reading Lane's private e-mail, and for feeding her private information to gossip columnists over the years including Dan Gross of the Philadelphia Daily News.[23] On July 21, 2008, Mendte was charged with one felony count of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization. In August 2008, Mendte pleaded guilty and in November 2008 he was sentenced to three years' probation and six months' home confinement.[24] Alycia Lane sued Larry Mendte, CBS, and the former general manager of KYW-TV over the incident. In December 2012 the suit against CBS was thrown out after the judge found that Alycia Lane had destroyed evidence. The suit against Mendte was settled in 2016.[25]

Preceded by CBS 3 6pm & 11pm Eyewitness news anchor
2003 – 2007 (with Larry Mendte)
Succeeded by
Larry Mendte & Susan Barnett

References

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Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia
from Grokipedia
Alycia Lane (born May 10, 1972) is an American former television news anchor who worked at stations including in from 2003 to 2008 and in from 2009 to 2013. She earned local for reporting and specials, including a 2005 honor for co-hosting a holiday program. Lane's career ended publicly amid her January 2008 termination from , which cited a series of off-duty incidents stemming from her personal judgments, including an that month for allegedly assaulting a police officer during a late-night altercation involving slurs and physical contact, as well as the prior revelation of her emailing provocative bikini photographs to professional contacts, which drew tabloid scrutiny and damaged her professional standing.

Early Life and Education

Family and Upbringing

Alycia Lane was born on May 10, 1972, and raised in Lake Grove, a village on , New York. She grew up in a family of mixed Puerto Rican and Welsh heritage, with Puerto Rican ancestry on her mother's side and Welsh on her father's. Lane's father retired as chief engineer at department stores in Lake Grove and Bay Shore, New York, while her mother retired as a . She has three siblings, consisting of two older brothers and a younger sister, Nicole, reflecting a close-knit family structure that later influenced her career decisions, as her parents and sister relocated to , to support her professional move there.

Academic Background

Alycia Lane received her degree in and Literature from the at Albany, graduating with honors. She later pursued advanced studies in journalism, earning a in from Northwestern University's . These qualifications provided the foundational academic training for her career in television news, emphasizing language proficiency and professional broadcasting skills.

Professional Career

Early Journalism Roles

Lane began her television journalism career in 1997 while pursuing a in at Northwestern University's , serving as a Washington, D.C.-based correspondent for KSNT-TV, the affiliate in . Her first on-air story covered a proposed marriage tax penalty in . In 2000, Lane relocated to Miami, Florida, where she worked as a reporter for , the affiliate known for its sensationalist style, and covered the high-profile custody case, which involved the six-year-old boy's rescue at sea, subsequent legal battles, and federal raid on his relatives' home. The following year, she moved to , the NBC-owned station in the same market, as a reporter, transitioning to a more traditional news environment. These early roles provided Lane with experience in both small-market remote reporting and competitive urban markets, honing skills in political coverage, , and before advancing to larger anchor positions.

Tenure at KYW-TV

Alycia Lane joined , the CBS-owned station in , in September 2003 as co-anchor of the weekday evening newscasts alongside . She anchored the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. broadcasts, expanding to include the 4 p.m. newscast as the principal weeknight anchor. The Lane-Mendte duo contributed to improved viewership, with the station's ratings rising notably after their pairing, including an immediate boost that enhanced KYW-TV's competitive position against rivals like . Lane earned two for local reporting during this period, recognizing her investigative and on-air work. Among her notable stories, Lane secured the first one-on-one interview in 2004 with Luzaida Cuevas, the mother of Delimar Vera, a child presumed dead in a 1997 fire but later discovered alive after being kidnapped as an infant. In 2005, she co-hosted the station's "Holiday Traditions" special, for which she received a local Emmy Award.

Post-KYW Employment and Achievements

Following her dismissal from in January 2008, Alycia Lane remained out of on-air television roles for approximately 18 months amid ongoing legal and personal matters. In August 2009, she relocated to and joined NBC-owned KNBC-TV as a reporter and weekend evening . Her on-air debut occurred on August 29, 2009, succeeding Kim Baldonado in the weekend slot. Lane advanced to co-anchoring KNBC's weekday morning program Today in L.A., a key local newscast in the nation's second-largest media market. This role positioned her as a prominent figure in Los Angeles broadcast journalism from 2009 to 2013, though no major awards or specialized reporting achievements from this period are documented in contemporaneous reporting. Her tenure ended in October 2013, after which she exited daily on-air duties at the station.

Personal Controversies

Relationship with Larry Mendte

Alycia Lane and began co-anchoring the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts at in on September 15, 2003. Their professional partnership quickly evolved into a flirtatious dynamic, which Mendte later described as unprofessional and improper. Mendte, who was married to fellow anchor at the time, initiated public acknowledgment of the relationship's inappropriate nature in August 2008 amid escalating workplace tensions. According to Mendte's account in a 2009 court filing related to subsequent legal disputes, the pair kissed approximately four to five times between December 2003 and March 2004, occurring roughly once every , but did not engage in further physical intimacy. Mendte claimed Lane instigated the first kiss after a Christmas party, portraying it as unwelcome advances from her that he resisted beyond kissing. Lane, however, denied any romantic affair, maintaining that no such physical interactions occurred and attributing Mendte's claims to personal animosity. Stensland-Mendte later confirmed awareness of her husband's involvement with , describing it as an affair in a interview, though she stood by Mendte during the ensuing scandals. The relationship's exposure highlighted tensions over Lane's rising prominence and salary surpassing Mendte's, contributing to reported on-set conflicts, but remained limited to the early months of their collaboration without evidence of ongoing romantic escalation.

Bikini Photograph Incident

In April 2007, Alycia Lane emailed vacation photographs of herself and female friends wearing bikinis to , an anchor at the and a platonic friend of over ten years. The images were sent during a phone call approximately two weeks before the story broke publicly but were mistakenly directed to an email account shared with Eisen's wife, , a fellow broadcaster. Shuster replied sarcastically to Lane on April 16, 2007, to which Lane responded two days later, apologizing for any misinterpretation and clarifying that the exchange involved no romantic intent or effort to interfere in Eisen's marriage, which had lasted nearly four years. Eisen himself later apologized to Lane for the resulting strain on her professional life. The private correspondence surfaced publicly on May 1, 2007, via a Page Six gossip column titled "Bikin-E-Mails Rattle TV Wife," which portrayed the photos as suggestive and applied inflammatory labels to such as "home wrecker." The story quickly gained widespread online traction, ranking among top search terms on platforms like and Yahoo. Lane described herself as "mortified" by the privacy violation in a statement released shortly after, insisting the bikini shots depicted "harmless," "fun," and "normal" group beach scenes with no salacious content, and reiterating the longstanding non-romantic nature of her rapport with Eisen. At , the incident prompted internal meetings and viewer complaints but no immediate on-air acknowledgment or disciplinary action, with station executives opting to back Lane amid the May sweeps period.

New York City Arrest

On December 16, 2007, Alycia Lane was arrested outside a Manhattan nightclub in New York City after an altercation with undercover police officers. Lane, then 35, was charged with second-degree assault for allegedly punching a female officer in the face, causing a bloody laceration that required hospital treatment. Her attorney, David Smith, claimed Lane did not recognize the individuals as officers and was defending herself from what she perceived as harassment by three men outside the club. Police reported that Lane also used an antigay epithet toward the officer during the incident. Lane was arraigned in criminal court on December 17, 2007, pleading not guilty to the charge. She was released on $3,000 bail and taken to the 10th Precinct station house following the arrest. The incident occurred amid Lane's tenure as a news anchor at in , drawing media attention to her professional status. In February 2008, prosecutors reduced the charges to misdemeanors, including and , and agreed to dismiss them entirely if Lane completed a six-month conditional discharge program without further arrests. Lane complied with the program, leading to the full dismissal of charges later that year. Following the resolution, Lane explored civil claims against authorities for , unlawful imprisonment, and but did not pursue them to trial.

Email Hacking by Mendte

In 2008, , a co-anchor at in alongside Alycia Lane, admitted to unlawfully accessing Lane's personal email accounts and on numerous occasions spanning from 2006 to May 2008. Mendte viewed hundreds of Lane's emails during this period, including correspondence with her agent, then-husband, and lawyers, often using keyloggers installed on shared work computers to obtain passwords. Prosecutors detailed that Mendte accessed her accounts more than 500 times, particularly intensifying in early 2008, with the intent to gather compromising information amid professional rivalry and jealousy over Lane's higher salary, which had reached $780,000 compared to his own. Mendte disseminated select email contents to local media outlets, bloggers, and gossip columnists to discredit Lane publicly, including details about her personal relationships and professional negotiations, which contributed to leaks that damaged her reputation. The initiated an probe after these leaks surfaced, leading to searches of Mendte's home and office computers in June 2008, where evidence of the intrusions was recovered. On August 22, 2008, Mendte confessed to the unauthorized accesses in a session with federal authorities, prompting his immediate dismissal from . Facing federal charges of unauthorized computer access under the , Mendte pleaded guilty on November 24, 2008, to one felony count. He was sentenced later that month to six months of home confinement, three years of , a $5,000 fine, and 250 hours of , with the court noting his actions stemmed from an obsessive fixation rather than financial gain. Mendte later expressed remorse, describing the hacking as a misguided to protect his career, though Lane's legal team contested this as insufficient accountability.

Dismissal from KYW-TV

Alycia Lane was terminated from her role as a news anchor at KYW-TV, the CBS-owned station in Philadelphia, on January 7, 2008, amid multiple off-camera incidents that had drawn public scrutiny. The decision followed her December 15, 2007, arrest in New York City, where she was charged with misdemeanor assault after allegedly punching an undercover female police officer outside a nightclub during a confrontation involving paparazzi photographers. Lane, who had been indefinitely removed from the air on December 17, 2007, following the arrest, maintained that the officer had grabbed her arm unprovoked and that she acted in self-defense; the charges were later reduced to a non-criminal violation and dropped after she completed anger management counseling. KYW-TV's management cited "a series of incidents" as the basis for the dismissal, without specifying details beyond the recent and prior embarrassments, including the October 2007 leak of emailed bikini photographs intended for a personal acquaintance, which surfaced in tabloid media and prompted internal station discussions. In an official statement, the station announced that Lane "has been released from her contract effective immediately," emphasizing that the move was unrelated to her on-air performance. Lane's attorney responded by indicating plans to seek depositions from station executives, including president Michael Colleran and news director Susan Schiller, to examine the termination process, though no immediate legal action was filed at that time. The firing occurred before revelations in July 2008 that co-anchor had accessed Lane's personal emails without authorization approximately 537 times between 2006 and 2008, leaking sensitive content to media outlets, which contributed to the scandals but was not publicly known at the time of her dismissal. Station officials later acknowledged awareness of interpersonal tensions but maintained the termination stemmed from Lane's independent conduct, as affirmed in subsequent legal proceedings where courts upheld the absence of in the station's public announcement.

Lawsuit and Settlement

In June 2008, Alycia Lane filed a civil lawsuit in Court of Common Pleas against Broadcasting Inc. (operator of ) and her former co-anchor , alleging negligence by the station in failing to prevent Mendte from unlawfully accessing her personal accounts, as well as claims of , invasion of , wrongful termination, and exploitation of her personal life for the station's benefit. The suit stemmed from Mendte's admitted hacking of over 600 emails from Lane's accounts between November 2007 and May 2008, which he used to undermine her professionally and personally, including leaking sensitive information that contributed to her January 2008 dismissal following a arrest. In December 2012, Common Pleas Court Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe dismissed the majority of Lane's claims against and , ruling that the station's statements regarding her termination and conduct did not meet the threshold for actionable , though some invasion-of-privacy claims against Mendte were allowed to proceed. The case endured multiple appeals and pretrial motions, including review on venue in 2011, which affirmed trial in . After nearly eight years of litigation, the parties reached an out-of-court settlement on October 14, 2016, one week before the scheduled trial date of October 21, averting a public airing of evidence such as Lane's private emails revealed in pretrial filings. The settlement terms, including any monetary compensation, were kept confidential per agreement, with neither side admitting liability.

Later Career and Public Profile

Role at KNBC

In August 2009, Alycia Lane joined , the NBC-owned television station in , as a weekend evening and general assignment reporter. She debuted on air on August 29, 2009, replacing Kim Baldonado, who had been promoted to anchor the station's midday report. Lane, an Emmy Award-winning with prior experience as a principal weeknight at in , was hired following her relocation to in July 2009. By 2012, Lane had transitioned to co-anchoring KNBC's weekday morning newscast, Today in LA, alongside Michael Brownlee, as part of a broader anchor lineup refresh announced on , 2012. In this role, she contributed to the station's early-morning coverage of news, traffic, and weather for the Los Angeles market. Her responsibilities included delivering live reports and segments focused on events, leveraging her background in investigative and general assignment reporting.

Departure and Current Status

Lane's employment at KNBC concluded on October 16, 2013, when she and traffic reporter Sean Murphy were removed from the weekday morning newscast amid a programming shake-up. A station spokesperson confirmed the departures, stating, "Alycia Lane and Sean Murphy's last day was today, October 16. We are grateful for the contributions they made to the NBC4 team," without elaborating on the rationale. Reports characterized the move as part of broader efforts to reposition the newscast, following Lane's transition from weekend anchoring to mornings earlier that year. Post-KNBC, Lane has not secured subsequent on-air anchoring roles in major markets, marking a shift away from high-profile broadcast journalism. She relocated to Philadelphia, her long-term base, and embraced motherhood, giving birth to her first child around 2014. Her social media profiles reflect a pivot toward personal life, including yoga, baking, cooking, and interior design, while retaining a self-description as a newscaster. Lane has occasionally appeared at public events, such as a fashion showcase in New York on September 13, 2023, alongside James Hall. As of 2025, maintains a low public profile with no reported active professional engagements in television. She is profiled as a mentor for Brown Girls Dream, an organization supporting aspiring female journalists of color, leveraging her Emmy and awards from over 15 years in the field. Her indicates ongoing identification as a broadcast media professional based in , though without specified current employment. This trajectory aligns with a broader retreat from the scrutiny of on-camera roles following multiple prior workplace controversies.

References

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