After the much-accused Harvey Weinstein scored a win earlier this month when the Manhattan District Attorney dropped one of the charges against him in a criminal case that could find him behind bars for life, things potentially went to a very bad place for the once-powerful producer today.
An amended class-action complaint filed in federal court Wednesday alleges Weinstein tried to rape a 16-year old virgin model in 2002 and continued harassing her for many years afterward in both New York and Los Angeles.
Weinstein “lured” the Poland-born teen “to his apartment and sexually assaulted her, and he continued to emotionally abuse and sexually harass her for nearly a decade thereafter,” the jury trial-seeking and disturbingly detailed filing states among the consolidated claims of 10 women in total (read it here).
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“As a result, Jane Doe has experienced severe emotional and physical distress,” the 264-page document against Weinstein, The Weinstein Company, the Walt Disney Company, Bob Weinstein and a slew of TWC board members and execs states. “Jane Doe was injured in her property or livelihood as a result of Weinstein’s actions, because Weinstein told Jane Doe he would help her secure an ensemble role in a movie, but he never did despite years of acting as the gatekeeper for and barrier to the industry because she would not give in to his sexual demands.”
Those demands went on and on over years, with Jane Doe seemingly trying to avoid Weinstein’s advances but still move ahead in the entertainment industry. It unveils a complicated relationship and reality of Hollywood that has confused many outside of the industry in the many claims against the producer by dozens of women like Ashley Judd and more.
One alleged incident in 2008 found Weinstein enacting a M.O. we have heard time and time again since the October 2017 New York Times exposé on the producer’s supposed decades of such behavior.
The “television in his TWC office showed Christina Aguilera performing,” the filing explains. “Weinstein paused their conversation to look up at the TV, and declared, ‘Wow, I’d really like to f*ck that p*ssy,'” it says. “He then unzipped his pants and began touching his penis. Jane Doe first froze, and then fled the office.” The interaction went on for several more years, it seems.
“This claim is preposterous,” Weinstein’s criminal attorney Ben Brafman said Wednesday in his now-expected blunt manner. “Like so many other women in this case who have already been exposed as liars, this latest completely uncorroborated allegation that is almost 20 years old will also be shown to be patently false.”
Today’s first amended complaint arises out of the action initially filed by Melissa Thompson, Larissa Gomes and Caitlin Dulan late last year, which claims RICO Act violations. This summer a federal judge put that case together with another civil action against Weinstein from Louisette Geiss, Zoe Brock, Sarah Ann Thomas, Katherine Kendall, Melissa Sagemiller and Nannette Klatt, which resulted in this filing today.
Along with being accused by more than 60 women of sexual assault or sexual harassment, Weinstein is under investigation by federal prosecutors as well as probes by the Manhattan D.A.’s office and the NYPD. Additional allegations against Weinstein have been reviewed by the LAPD, which sent an initial trio of cases to the L.A. County D.A. on February 8. Another case was handed over to that same office early last month. As UK police continue their investigation, the Beverly Hills Police first passed two cases of sexual assault that they say occurred in their jurisdiction to Lacey’s office on January 2.