Director James Toback – Among the first Hollywood men of being accused in the #MeToo – movement – was ordered to pay $ 1.68 billion to 40 women for sexual assault and other types of abuse.
On Wednesday, a New York jury granted women $ 280 million in compensatory damages and $ 1.4 billion in punitive damages, intended to punish malware.
Toback, who directed the films Black and white (1999) and Two girls and a guy (1998) and was nominated for an Oscar for writing the film Warren Beatty Bug (1991), did not ride a defense at the trial and was not represented by a lawyer. In January, the court rendered a default judgment, reserved for the cases in which the defendant did not compare.
When omnipresent sexual harassment allegations have surfaced for the first time in a report Los Angeles Times In which more than 30 women have come forward, Toback denied having met most of the accusers. He also said that it was “biologically impossible” for him to engage in alleged behavior, saying that he was suffering from diabetes and heart disease that required medication.
Brad Beckworth, lawyer for the complainants, said the verdict concerned “justice” but also “resume power to the attackers”. He added: “Several years ago, when the Me-Too movement began, I think many of us thought we had gone to the point where men in the position of power would attack women and try to steal their dignity and their honor in exchange for allowing them to advance in their careers. We now know that the movement did not go far enough. We still have a lot of people. ”
The trial, tabled in 2022, accused Toback of taking advantage of its power in the entertainment industry to attract young women in meetings under the pretext of discussing potential cinema roles. He would order them to engage in sexual behavior, in particular by removing their clothes or masturbating in front of him, saying that it was “part of the work”, according to the complaint.
When some women tried to escape, Toback would have trapped them. Several of the cases involved “rubbing his genitals against them and ejaculating them without their consent,” said the trial. The complaint also allegedly alleged that Toback “would touch and force force and force the genitals of his victims with his hands and / or his mouth against their will”.
The women were informed by Toback, who said that he had links with the crowd, that he would ruin their careers if they signaled the attacks. The alleged misconduct lasted four decades from 1979 to 2014.
The trial was brought under the New York adult survivors, which actually suspended time for complaints involving sexual offenses for a year. Several high -level characters in Hollywood have been prosecuted under the law, notably Sean “Diddy” Combs, Bill Cosby and Jimmy Iovine.
We do not know if the price for punitive damages will remain. Although New York does not have a ceiling, there is generally a maximum amount that the figure can exceed compensatory damages.
