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May 7, 2025 • 15 mins
Smokey!
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Scott Vorgies for women who used to work as housekeepers
for Smokey Robinson are now suing Smoky and his wife,
which is on accusing him of repeated sexual assault during
their employment at his home in Los Angeles. The suit
was filed yesterday in La Superior Court. Says the assaults

(00:22):
occurred between two thousand and seven and twenty twenty four.
These women seek fifty million dollars in damages. They say
that he assaulted them or they were alone with him
in the home. Each one says they eventually quit because
they didn't think that sleeping with Smokey was a should

(00:44):
be a tenant of their proposed employment. But they said
for fear of retaliation, public shame, and concerns over immigration status,
they delayed in coming forward.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
So all that sounds.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
These women are Hispanic employed as housekeepers who said, well,
we're earning below minimum wage and as low wage workers
and vulnerable positions, they lacked the resources and options to
protect themselves. They said that Smokey Robinson not only subjected
them to his whims and desires on a regular basis.

(01:21):
The employment by the way of these four women range
from as short as about a year to as long
as eighteen years. So yeah, I came to work and
every Thursday, that's when Smokey would start singing, you really
got a hold on me.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Well, she worked there for eighteen years. It doesn't necessarily
mean that that's had been going on the whole eighteen years.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
It also doesn't necessarily mean that anything happened absolutely. It
also could possibly mean that it's even worse than they're describing.
I don't know. Let me check my schedule, because sometimes
I forget the places I go and the things I Nope,
I wasn't there, so I don't know. But they also

(02:06):
say that not only was he where they he's like, hey,
after you know with the floorist, you can come in
here and work on this, and you're like Smokey. They
also said that he was racist and subjected them to
a hostile work environment by continuously using ethnic slurs and
verbal abuse because they are Hispanic women. Smoky Smokey Robinson

(02:36):
is eighty five years old. His eyes are like seventeen.
I don't think Smokey Robinson has blinked in at least
seventeen years.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Oh, he doesn't blink.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
I don't think Smokey can blink.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
I didn't know that.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Smokey is always very interested in what you're saying. If
you catch my drift, he had he's had a little
work done.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
I see. Does he even have fifty million dollars?

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Well, I know when these a lot of these artists
in the seventies and eighties, they signed terrible contracts. Yes, well,
that's just the way it was back then.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah, I mean probably looking back at the sixties for that.
But no, Smokey did well after that. He continued to
have hits into the eighties. In fact, did he Yeah,
he had the big song One Heartbeat at a time.

(03:37):
And in fact, that's the song that popped in my
head when these women were like Smokey was continuously subjecting
us to his sexual desires. I'm like, doesn't he do
that in slow motion? Couldn't you just walk away? Remember
that song?

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Wait, don't run? Don't run?

Speaker 1 (03:53):
That song? Yeah? Anyway, do we not have One Heartbeat
by Smokey Robins?

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Sounds familiar? I probably know it, of course.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
That's where he's I remember listening to this for me,
I remember, oh yeah, it's coming. I remember listening to
the song as a kid in the like nineteen eighty
seven ish and thinking because I had I was like
nine ten, how old was I eleven? Like, it's like
ten eleven years old. So I had a sneaking suspicion

(04:25):
as to how all that love making stuff worked. But
then Smokey Robinson comes on there and says, and we'll
be making love and soow.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Motion, and I'm like, nope, sorry, I don't know it
slow motion.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
I just had an image in my head of what
I could glean from my friend's dirty magazines, what you
could see on the scrambled Cinemax channel, and Smokey Robinson
like slow motion, and it was just an indelible image.
Remember that song.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
The rest of it is one hot beat at a time,
tells your eyes and they tune on wine sooner or
lad in a fulling lot if we make it one
hot beat.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
And that's what they're actually talking about. Maybe they made
he made them sit and listen to him sing.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
I didn't even know until right now that I knew
probably ninety three percent of the lyrics to the chorus
of that song.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
That's pretty good.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
I tried to sing it high like Smoky you got
part way there. Well, I'm not Smoky Robinson.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Aren't you glad?

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Now I we shouldn't. There's nothing funny about this.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
No, but there's funny about Thunk, something funny about that
he's eighty five. You know, I mentioned this way if
there was one of the women that were that is
part of this has only been there a year.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
It's the eighteen years that gets me. It's like, why
didn't you you know? Because am I already in trouble?
Is anything I say now really just plowing on? Look?
How does this conversation not come up? Miss? You said

(06:27):
that you were in Smokey's employee for eighteen years. Yes,
your honor, that's true. And during the majority of that
eighteen years, Smokey would say, Hey, after you're done vacuuming,
why don't you come over and wax this and point
to his cratchel area. Yes, that's true, Smokey. What do
you have to say about these accusations that occurred with

(06:49):
this woman? Several times over the period of twelve years,
Smokey said, I thought we were having a good time.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
I think if you truly feel powerless, truly, I know,
I know I could that have gone on that long?

Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yes, I know, I suppose so I know, But you're
making me feel bad.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
No, this I think it's a good It's a good
thing to talk about because it does bring both sides
in and it does make people understand that there are
people who maybe need to be educated a little bit
more or just informed.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
I know. And then and let's let's see, let's for
a second, dwell in the space where these allegations are true.
I don't want to I'm a Smoky Robinson fan. Therefore
he couldn't have possibly done anything because he's saying I
second that emotion.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
I understand that it's I do in a weird way.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah, it's stupid, But this is a standard set long
ago by Dave Chappelle, who had a great bit on
Chappelle's show where he was like, don't don't you think
that Michael Jackson is guilty these things? No? Why not?
Because he made thriller? That was the argument.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
I think it's a pretty good argument, at least in
the psychological aspect of it.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
Yeah, so don't yell at me, yell at Dave Chappelle.
But for a moment here, let's dwell in the space
where the allegations are true. If we can all step
in that space for a second. Okay, a little dark
in here, but all right. Then this would cause other
women who are in a similar situation saying, look, I

(08:35):
know I felt powerless, but now I'm empowered and to
say this is not right and I don't want to
be a part of this, and I'm moving on. Whether
they file a lawsuit and try and say and I'm
going to get paid on my way up, I think
is not as important as getting out of a situation
that you don't want to be in. And that's true,
isn't it of many people and lots of things, Lucy,

(08:57):
don't leave your job right now? Inspired why what I'm
about to say, But there are a lot of people
or just feel like, well, I'm in a situation. I'm here.
You know it could be worse, It certainly could be better,
but I'm just gonna stick it out. Whether you're sleeping
with your boss and you don't want to, or whether
you're sleeping with your husband and you don't want to

(09:20):
and you think I want better, Well maybe it's out there,
and maybe you can be empowered by these women who
said Smokey Robinson and his unblinking eyeballs and his eighty
five year old wrinkled body came at me every day,
and I finally stood up for myself and said, smoky, now,

(09:40):
and then you can be empowered to quit your job
or end that dead end relationship, or call someone that
you'd thought that perhaps you had this axe to grind
that would never end. And now it's time to bury
that hatchet and say, look, I'm just I'm feel empowered.
I want to move on. I want better for my life.
And can't we all just do that? Lucy again, don't

(10:02):
quit your job right now? Can't we all just we
learn from these women and move on and make a
better life for ourselves. And if there's a lawsuit, then
maybe I mean, if you get the fifty million each,
is it fifty million split between the two or between
the four. If so, that's not fair because if one

(10:25):
only had this for about a year and the other
one for about eighteen years, I would think that the
person who got eighteen years is deserved of a lot
bigger chunk of that fifty million dollars in damages.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
Are Is he eligible to be arrested for sexual abuse
or some form of sexual assault?

Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yes, because it says the assaults occurred as recently as
last year when Smokey was eighty four.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Okay, so once he gets arrested and gets to speak
and gets a trial and gets his moment to explain,
maybe we see something different. Most likely you're what you
probably have is what I mentioned before, somebody who feels
so absolutely one hundred percent powerless. That's the only way

(11:15):
that can go on for eighteen years. And maybe it
didn't go on eighteen years. Maybe it only went on
ten And when I say only, I'm I'm just trying
to because ten minutes is too much, ten seconds is
too much. If that's really what was happening that, if
this is all true, right, so maybe it was only
going on ten years, and so she felt powerless for
ten years.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
I mentioned the Smokey's wife is named any Yeah, what's
that about. She's named as a defendant. The women say
that she enabled Smokey's behavior, fully aware of her husband's
apparently unending appetite.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Maybe he is a monster, and maybe she was afraid
of him too.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
I think so. Therefore she is also Francis rob is
also responsible for this hideous work environment.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
Well that's going to take some unweaving, and that's don't
expect any anything solved in this anytime soon.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
I guess she would come home and be like, Smoky,
leave her alone. She's got to clean the bathrooms, and
she's just allowed it. Smoky.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
I don't think that you're going to find a lot
of people in a position that would just allow somebody
else to be hurt. They are. They might not say
anything about it, but they're not just they're not just
sitting back saying, yeah, whatever, do whatever you want. Those
people who allow things to happen to other people are

(12:50):
just as damaged most likely.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
Okay, but I want to step out of that realm
where we were say, all right, if this is true,
then now we'll step back into the realm where Smokey
Robinson is innocent until proven guilty. And I really hope
he didn't do it, because I don't want anything to
have happened to these women. And if it turns out
they're lying, then the only thing they're guilty of, or

(13:15):
the only thing that happened to him, is they have
to face the facts for lying about a great singer,
And so I don't want this to have happened to them.
So I hope that they're lying about it. So there's
apparently a position open. I mean, Smokey still needs a housekeeper.
What's he pay? What? What does he pay?

Speaker 2 (13:36):
What?

Speaker 1 (13:37):
Every once in a while, you got to let Smokey
have what a full minute and a half with you?

Speaker 2 (13:41):
Less than fifty million dollars?

Speaker 1 (13:43):
What's it pay?

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Less than fifty million dollars?

Speaker 1 (13:46):
Are you sure?

Speaker 2 (13:47):
Nope?

Speaker 1 (13:49):
There's an amount of money even I eve and I
I think I've got pretty good morals and values, but
I also have my price. I know.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, if you're getting paid for it and you choose
to do it, then that's a completely different thing.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
That's what I'm saying. Okay, right now, there is somewhere, Look,
don't judge, there is there is a woman or a
male talk radio host somewhere longing for a better life,
and they're looking at their situation where they're having. They're
subjecting themselves to the same horrible stuff, and they're not

(14:24):
getting paid anything, and they're certainly not living and working
in a nice house. They're probably get a nice like
servants quarters or something that Smokey's mansion. So they're like,
all right, so he needs a housekeeper, what's it pay? Well,
you're gonna have to sell your soul. Yeah, law, I've

(14:45):
sold that years ago. What what do I gotta do?
What's it pay? You know, there are people that do
that kind of thing for a lot less than whatever
this probably pays. I'd spoke he's an attractive man. I'd
let him take a run at me for I mean,

(15:05):
for a certain prize. I'm not doing it for twenty
two dollars an hour, and you're gonna have to come
up with probably more five dollars or more than.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
That, for five dollars more.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
Twenty seven dollars an hour. None of this is on
the air right Scott Voy's Mornings nine to eleven on
news radio eleven ten KFAB
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