Zulu member reinstated but can’t reclaim crown

26th November 2018   ·   0 Comments

After being accused of sexual harassment by a former employee at the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club earlier this year, suspended indefinitely and stripped of his crown for the upcoming Carnival season, former Zulu president and King-elect Naaman Stewart had hoped to be reinstated in the famed historically Black Carnival krewe and reclaim his crown. With Carnival season just weeks away from kicking into high gear, Civil Court Judge Christopher Bruno on Nov. 15 dashed Stewart’s hopes of still reigning as King Zulu but allowed him to return to an organization he had been affiliated with for decades.

Stewart declined to talk on camera after the ruling, but his attorney, Nicholas Linder told reporters that he did not agree with the judge’s reason for the ruling.

“I don’t agree with the phrasing the judge used, unfortunately. I think the #MeToo movement has done a lot of great things. Sometimes, people are accused of things they didn’t do. I’m sure the judge didn’t mean anything offensive by it,” he said.

After he was elected to reign as King Zulu over the Memorial Day Weekend, Stewart was accused by a former Zulu club employee of forcing his way into a club bathroom and trying to force her to have sex with him. The victim captured the entire ordeal on her cellphone and later shared it with WWL News and The New Orleans Advocate.

She was fired after the incident.

The victim later filed a second lawsuit accusing Zulu members of harassing her at her new job by showing up with campaign T-shirts that carried Naaman Stewart’s name and offering her $25,000 on Stewart’s behalf to not speak with authorities.

Shortly after the cellphone recording was made public, Zulu’s Board of Directors voted to suspend Stewart indefinitely and replaced him as King-elect with longtime Zulu member George Rainey.

After a judge tossed charges against Stewart for the incident because it occurred several years ago but had not been filed in a timely manner, Stewart filed a lawsuit against Zulu that accused its board of violating the organization’s bylaws when it suspended him indefinitely.

That lawsuit ultimately made it possible for Steward to rejoin Zulu as a member but did not restore his status as King-elect.

A visibly upset Naaman Stewart was captured by television news cameras leaving the courthouse after the Nov. ruling and deferring all questions to his attorney.

Zulu’s current president and former Zulu King Elroy James, told reporters after the ruling that there is “no place in Zulu” for the sexual harassment and disrespect of women.

Zulu’s president testified that the organization has lost thousands of dollars as a result of a sponsor pulling its support after the scandal was made public.

A number of media outlets questioned whether Steward might file another lawsuit in order to recover the $25,000 to $30,000 he spent in his campaign to become Zulu King.

To date, he hasn’t broached the subject.

Zulu officials said that the organization would conduct its first grievance hearing to investigate the accusations made against Stewart over the weekend.

While George Rainey is expecting to reign as King Zulu for the 2019 Mardi Gras season, some members have expressed concerns about how the recent scandal and the judge’s ruling will impact the organization in the weeks leading up to Fat Tuesday.

‘Reinstating Naaman as a member of Zulu is going to bring a lot of tension and drama to the club,” a longtime member who spoke on the condition of anonymity told The Louisiana Weekly. “Naaman Stewart stepped on a lot of toes and rubbed a lot of people the wrong way even before this scandal was reported. He used his time as president to attack those who criticized him and made a lot of enemies. There are still some hard feelings about the way he ran the organization.”

Another member who also didn’t want to reveal his name was more blunt about Stewart and his relationship with Zulu’s membership.

“Naaman Stewart still doesn’t get it,” he told The Weekly. “He still thinks he is the victim or the wronged party but nobody made him do what was captured on that cellphone. It was a selfish and immature thing to do, something that put the organization’s reputation and future at risk.”

This article originally published in the November 26, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.