File – James Toback arrives at Fest AFI 2014 “The Gambeler” on November 10, 2014 in Los Angeles.
Richard Shotwell / Invision / AP
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Richard Shotwell / Invision / AP
A New York jury granted Wednesday $ 1.68 billion in damages to 40 women who accused the writer and director James Toback sexual abuse and other crimes over a period of 35 years, according to lawyers representing the complainants.
The decision stems from a trial brought to Manhattan in 2022 after New York State instituted a one -year window for people to have prosecution on complaints of sexual assault even if they took place decades ago.
He marks one of the greatest jury prices since the advent of the #MeToo movement, as well as in the history of New York State, said lawyer Brad Beckworth, of the law firm Nix Patterson LLP, in an interview. The complainants, he said, believe that a verdict so important will send a message to powerful individuals “who do not deal with women in an appropriate manner”.
The court had not yet published documentation on the verdict on Wednesday evening. Beckworth said the verdict included $ 280 million in compensatory damages and $ 1.4 billion for punitive damages to the complainants.
“This verdict concerns justice,” said Beckworth in a statement. “But more importantly, it is a question of bringing power back to attackers – and their catalysts – and to return it to those he tried to control and silence.”
Beckworth said the abuses had taken place between 1979 and 2014.
Toback was nominated for an Oscar for the writing of “Bugsy” from 1991, and his career in Hollywood lasted over 40 years. The accusations that he engaged in years of sexual abuse has surfaced at the end of 2017 while the #MeToo movement drew attention. They were first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
In 2018, Los Angeles prosecutors said the prescription statutes had expired in five cases that they had examined and refused to bring criminal charges against Toback.
The complainants then filed a complaint in New York a few days after the entry into force of the state adult survivors. Lawyers said they had discovered a Toback scheme trying to attract young women in the streets of New York to meet him with falsely promising roles in his films, then submitting them to sexual acts, threats and psychological coercion.
Mary Monahan, a principal plaintiff in the case, called the “validation” jury price for her and other women.
“For decades, I carried this trauma in silence, and today, a jury believed me. We have believed. It changes everything,” she said in a statement. “This verdict is more than a number – this is a declaration. We are not disposable. We are not liars. We are not collateral damage in someone else’s power journey. The world now knows what we have always known: what he did was real.”
Toback, 80, who had recently represented, has denied several times in court documents that he “had committed a sexual offense” and that “any sexual encounter or contact between the complainants and the defendant was consensual”.
He also argued that the New York law extending the limitation period on cases of sexual abuse had violated its constitutional rights.
A message sent to an e-mail address listed to ask for comments was not immediately answered.
In January, the judge of the case rendered a default judgment against Toback, who had not appeared before the court when he is ordered to do so. The judge then planned a trial only for damages last month to determine the amount of tab to pay for women.
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