Food FYI: Waffle House sex scandal

A sex scandal is roiling Waffle House‘s chairman, and like the chain’s hash browns, he has been scattered, covered and peppered in the news this week. After being accused of sexual harassment by a former employee, Joseph Rogers Jr. claimed he had been blackmailed, according to ABC News.

The Waffle House chairman’s former housekeeper filed an incident report with the Atlanta Police Department alleging that he had demanded she perform sexual acts on him in order to keep her job.

Rogers said that during a nearly eight-year period, he had a “series of infrequent consensual sexual encounters” with the woman, who ABC News was not identifying due to the allegations, but claimed he was a victim of blackmail.

“I am a victim of my own stupidity, but I am not going to be a victim of a crime -- extortion,” he said in a statement. “That was wrong of me and I am very sorry for the pain and embarrassment I’ve caused my wife and family. There is no excuse for what I have done.”

Waffle House spokesman Pat Warner told ABCNews.com that the woman was Rogers’ former housekeeper and that she was not employed by Waffle House Inc. Warner also said that earlier this year, Rogers transitioned from Waffle House chairman and CEO to just chairman. He directed further questions to Rogers’ attorney Robert Ingram, who did not respond to a request for comment by ABC News.

No charges have been filed against Rogers and police are investigating the matter, according to the Associate Press.

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