James Toback, a filmmaker who faced allegations of sexually assaulting many women during the #MeToo movement, has been instructed by a New York City court to pay over a billion dollars following a trial for sexual assault.
After 40 women collectively accused the 80-year-old writer and director of sexual assault, false imprisonment, coercion, and psychological abuse, a jury ruled that he must pay $1.68 billion, as reported by Variety.
Earlier in the case, Toback denied each of the women’s allegations and claimed that any sexual activity between them had been consensual.
Although 40 women were involved in the lawsuit that number is just a fraction of the women who have accused Toback of sexual misconduct.
An article in the Los Angeles Times from 2018 revealed that a significant number of 395 women came forward accusing Toback of sexual harassment or assault.
The smaller subsection of women involved in the lawsuit reportedly won their case on summary judgement, as Toback did not attend the trial.
James Toback, the disgraced filmmaker who was accused of sexually assaulting dozens of women at the height of the #MeToo movement, has been ordered to pay more than a billion dollars after a sexual assault trial in New York City; pictured in 2013 in NYC
40 women testified in court or appeared in video depositions to accuse Toback, 80, of sexual assault, false imprisonment, coercion and psychological abuse, according to Variety; pictured in 2017 in Venice
Although the lawsuit was filed back in December of 2022, the trial only began this year and lasted for just seven days.
All 40 of the women spoke at the trial, with half testifying in person for the jury while the other half testified via video depositions.
It was only possible for their lawsuit to be filed because of New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which created a one-year window in which alleged sexual abuse survivors could levy civil claims, even if their abuse had occurred outside the statute of limitations.
‘This verdict is about justice. But more importantly, It’s about taking power back from the abusers — and their and enablers — and returning it to those he tried to control and silence,’ said Brad Beckworth, the lead counsel for the plaintiffs, after the verdict was announced.
‘Today, a jury from the greater New York Community spoke very clearly and sent a message that reverberates far beyond this courtroom: no one is above accountability. The movement is not over. There is more work to do.’
The actress Mary Monahan, the lead plaintiff for the lawsuit, said: ‘This is not just a verdict — it’s validation.
‘For decades, I carried this trauma in silence, and today, a jury believed me. Believed us. That changes everything,’ she continued. ‘This verdict is more than a number — it’s a declaration.
‘We are not disposable. We are not liars. We are not collateral damage in someone else’s power trip. The world knows now what we’ve always known: what he did was real. And what we did — standing up, speaking out — was right.’
Although 40 women were involved in the lawsuit that number is just a fraction of the hundreds who have accused Toback of sexual misconduct; Toback pictured with Francis Ford Coppola and Rosanna Arquette in LA in 2008
Fellow plaintiff Karen Sklaire Watson declared that New York City was now a safer place for women after the verdict against Toback
‘We’re drawing a line in the sand: Predators cannot hide behind fame, money, or power,’ she said via a statement. ‘Not here. Not anymore.’
Toback was first hit with numerous accusations of sexual harassment and sexual assault in 2017, shortly after numerous women spoke out against disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein.
Multiple women came forward after a tweet that year in which Selma Blair shared a Huffington Post article titled ‘James Toback Gets Us, He Truly Gets Us in “The Private Life Of A Modern Woman,”‘ referring to his 2017 film starring Alec Baldwin and Sienna Miller, which was later retitled An Imperfect Murder.
‘Ironic,’ Blair said of the headline.
Shortly afterward, 38 women alleged that they had been sexually harassed by Toback to the Los Angeles Times, and that number grew by hundreds by 2018.
