Henderson neighbors 'shocked' by Charlie Rose sexual harassment claims
The news that CBS News and PBS were cutting ties to Charlie Rose on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after several women who worked with him alleged a pattern of sexual misconduct, had neighbors in Henderson, N.C., questioning how well they knew him.
People in the small North Carolina city loved watching his rise. Now, they are hating watching him fall.
"He did make us proud when he went off and was so successful in New York," said Faye Mitchell Stewardson. "People were proud to say that Charlie Rose was from Henderson."
Stewardson went to Henderson High School with Rose.
"He was a couple years ahead of me in high school," she said. "(He was a) popular, nice guy. Just an all-around boy."
Like many others, Stewardson is still processing the allegations outlined in a Washington Post story.
Several women accused Rose of touching them on the breasts, buttocks or thighs, emerging naked from a shower when they were working at his residence and, in one case, calling a 21-year-old staffer to tell his fantasies of seeing her swim in the nude. A former associate producer for Rose's PBS show, Reah Bravo, told the Washington Post: "He was a sexual predator, and I was his victim."
WRAL News reporter Sarah Krueger, who interned for the Charlie Rose show in New York City in the summer of 2011, says she had little direct contact with Rose in her role, but that senior female staffers offered a vague warning to her and other female interns not to let Rose make them feel uncomfortable.
"I'm shocked and in disbelief. I'd like to believe it can't be," Stewardson said. "But there are a lot of women that have come out, and I'm sad to say that I guess it could be. I don't know. I have no way of knowing."
Rose still owns a home in Henderson. WRAL News knocked on the front door, but no one was home.
Neighbors say there is very little activity there.
"About twice a year some visitors will come down here and they'll stay here a couple days," said Forrest Fesperman, who lives nearby.
He said people in the community were excited to call him a neighbor.
"He's well thought of, and people around here are proud to have Charlie Rose as one of the city's sons," Fesperman said.
Rose earned both a bachelor's degree in history and a law degree from Duke University. In 2016, he received an honorary doctorate at Duke University's commencement ceremony.
Rose joins a lengthening list of media figures who have lost jobs because of workplace behavior, including Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, Fox host Bill O'Reilly, NBC News political reporter Mark Halperin and National Public Radio news chief Michael Oreskes. The reckoning has come to entertainment, too, led by the assault allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
