The widow of a CBS employee is suing the network over life insurance payments tied to the death of of her husband via auto-erotic asphyxiation.
Deborah Conradi’s husband, CBS engineer Lawrence LaFave, was found dead at a Tarentum, Pennsylvania, hotel room closet in June 2016. He was found “hanging from a wire closet shelf in his hotel room by a scarf” and was wearing a slip, bra, women’s underwear and pantyhose, TMZ reports.
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The case’s medical examiner declared the death was accidental, but CBS is still refusing to pay out LaFave’s AIG life insurance policy to Conradi.
The policy reportedly includes specific language that prevents incidents like LaFave’s from being collected on.
“These actions, which carried the risk of death by hanging, would not constitute an unanticipated accident that resulted in his death, as required by our policy,” CBS wrote to Conradi. “Rather, they would indicate death resulted in who or in part from … a natural and probably consequence of intentionally self-inflicted injury, specifically excluded under this policy.”
Conradi is suing for $1.4 million in benefits and punitive damages.
