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Former General Hospital star Ingo Rademacher demanded that his previously dismissed lawsuit against ABC over alleged wrongful termination be reopened — and dragged his costar Steve Burton into the drama, In Touch can exclusively report.
According to court documents obtained by In Touch, Ingo, 53, who claimed he was fired from his role as Jasper ‘Jax’ Jacks due to his objection to ABC’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy, asked the court to review new evidence that he says supports his claims.
Ingo claimed he asked ABC for a religious exemption to the rule. The network denied his request. He said the decision to fire him was a violation of his right to privacy under the law. The soap star sued seeking unspecified damages from ABC after being let go after 25 years on General Hospital.
The lawsuit accused the defendants of religious discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination and violation of his right to privacy. ABC denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
The network claimed that Ingo’s argument for not getting the vaccine was based in health reasons not any religious belief. In June 2023, the court sided with ABC and dismiss the claims.
Ingo filed an appeal of that decision.
In his new motion, Ingo asked the court to have ABC fix a paperwork issue that he needs done to continue with his appeal. However, he also asked that the court reopen the summary judgment proceedings so it can consider new evidence that “provides compelling support for his political discrimination claim: namely, evidence that ABC rehired Steve Burton, the other General Hospital actor it let go supposedly because of its mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy.”
Ingo’s lawyer argued, “ABC’s rehiring of Mr. Burton, which occurred while this case was on appeal confirms that ABC got rid of Ingo because it did not like his political views. It confirms that ABC did not merely lay Ingo off, with the intent of bringing him back later, as it did with [Steve]. It re-cast his role. It replaced him, or is in the process of replacing him, with another actor.”
Further, Ingo claimed that ABC produced documents during discovery that showed it decided to terminate Ingo’s contract by the summer of 2021, “before Disney (which owns ABC) issued the mandatory vaccination policy.”
He said the messages that ABC produced showed General Hospital producers sharing one of Ingo’s political postings from Instagram. One producer wrote, “Ready for a recast!”
Another producer commented, “Yup.” Ingo said the text messages confirm what he said in his amended complaint, He said that ABC fired him because the producers did not agree with political statements he was making in 2021. He said ABC produced texts from producers who called Ingo a “ignorant racist” and “nut.” His lawyer argued, ”These text messages related to social media posts that Ingo made during the key period in this case, when the General Hospital writers supposedly ran out of ideas for his character.” Further, Ingo pointed out that Steve was brought back in June 2024 to the show. He said, “That Steve also refused to get the COVID-19 shot. “But unlike Ingo, ABC did not have any political animus toward [Steve]. It did not talk about “recasting” his character during 2021.”
“The evidence is compelling,” Ingo’s lawyer said. “ABC’s counsel argued that the politically motivated text messages General Hospital producers sent to each other were irrelevant because, as with [Steve], ABC said it let Ingo go due to the COVID-19 vaccine policy. If so, then ABC should also have re-hired Ingo by now. It has not done that, and it won’t do that, because ABC had already decided to get rid of Ingo, to ‘recast’; his character, because of his political beliefs. ABC opposed Ingo’s ex parte application. The network argued Steve’s rehiring was “is completely irrelevant and raises no triable issue of fact in this case.”
The court denied Ingo’s request to reopen discovery at a recent hearing. His appeal is ongoing.
English (US) ·