New information is surfacing after Wheel of Fortune announcer Jim Thornton was suspended from the longtime game show following allegations that he was seen accessing a chat room described as being for pedophiles.
According to TMZ, the incident allegedly occurred in May as Thornton was traveling back to Los Angeles on an American Airlines flight, when another passenger reportedly noticed the chat room open on his laptop.
The passenger, whose identity has not been disclosed, also supplied images she said were taken of the computer screen. She told the outlet she became alarmed after seeing what she described as a series of disturbing messages and believed the chat room appeared to be aimed at pedophiles, prompting her to notify a flight attendant.
In the images, one message mentioned a family-friendly restaurant and claimed there were “a couple of cute boys and a hot little girl,” referring to it as an “All-you-can-eat Boyfett.” Another message included the abbreviation “CP,” which the passenger said she believed could have meant child pornography.
“wait you’re on a plane right?” one message said. “what if someone sees?”
A reply from another user read, “Yes exactly! What if someone sees a random seqence (sic) of lines on a screen. I love it,” before the user described it as a “big middle finger to da man.”
That same user also wrote, “saunters to the bathroom for a quick w—k on the 737.”
It remains unclear whether Thornton—whose attorney has denied any criminal wrongdoing—wrote any of the messages. Oxygen has not independently verified the images.
In a statement to Oxygen, the airline confirmed, “On May 14, American Airlines Flight 1276 was met by law enforcement upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) following concerns reported by a customer onboard.”
Thornton was never charged with any crime.
His lawyer Allison Hart told TMZ that the lifeline.chat was “not unlawful” and that there was “no unlawful child pornography or other pedophilic content” in the chatroom.
She added, “My client never viewed, downloaded or consumed any child pornography whether on that commercial flight in May or at any other time.”
Hart went on explain that Thornton was active in the suicide prevention website 988lifeline.org and its associated chatroom chat.988lifeline.org after losing a close relative several years earlier. While in that chat, Hart said Thornton received a link to the Lifeline.chat and clicked on it. She said he left the chatroom after realizing what it was, although TMZ reported that the images suggested he’d spent at least 57 minutes in the chat room.
According to Hart, Thornton was briefly detained after the flight, but released after law enforcement authorities concluded that no crime occurred.
“In short,” she said, “my client did nothing wrong.”
In response to the allegations, Sony Pictures Television has suspended Thornton, who has served as the announcer since 2011.
“We have recently been made aware of allegations concerning Jim Thornton,” a spokesperson said in a statement to Oxygen. “He has been suspended from Wheel of Fortune and we are recasting while we conduct a thorough investigation.”
