According to lawyers, the New York jury on Wednesday granted $ 1.68 billion compensation to 40 women who accused the writer and director James TBACK of sexual abuse and other crimes over 35 years.
The decision results from a lawsuit filed in Manhattan in 2022. After the New York state established an annual window, so that people firm with lawsuits regarding claims for sexual assault, even if they took place ten years ago.
This is one of the biggest awards of the jury since the appearance of the #metoo movement, as well as in the history of New York, said lawyer Brad Beckworth from Nix Patterson LLP. The plaintiffs, as he said, believe that such a large verdict will send a message to powerful people who “do not treat women accordingly.”
The court has not yet published the documentation of the judgment on Wednesday evening. Beckworth said that the verdict covered $ 280 million compensation and $ 1.4 billion for criminal compensation for reasons.
“This verdict is about justice,” said Beckworth in a statement. “But more importantly, it is about regaining power from the perpetrators – and their and factors – and to return it to those he tried to control and silence.”
Beckworth said that abuse took place in 1979–2014.
Tobback was nominated for an Oscar for writing “Bugsy” from 1991, and his career in Hollywood lasted over 40 years. The accusations, which were involved in the years of sexual abuse, appeared at the end of 2017, because the #metoo movement attracted attention. They first reported the Los Angeles Times.
In 2018, prosecutors from Los Angeles stated that the laws on restrictions expired in five cases that they had reviewed and refused to lodge criminal charges against Tobback.
The plaintiffs then filed a lawsuit in New York a few days after the entry into force of the Act on adult survival. The lawyers said they discovered a Tobback pattern, which is trying to lure young women on the streets of New York to meet him through false promising roles in his films, and then subject them to sexual acts, threats and psychological coercion.
“Validation” for women
Mary Monahan, the main reason in the case, called the jury award “validation” for her and other women.
“For decades I wore this trauma in silence, and today the jury believed me. It believed us. It changes everything,” she said in a statement. “This verdict is more than a number – it's a declaration. We are not one -off. We are not liars. We are not by the trainee damage to someone's power travel. The world knows what we always knew: what he did was true.”
The 80 -year -old Toback, who recently represented himself, denied many times in court documents that “he had committed any sexual offense” and that “any sexual meeting or contact between the plaintiffs and the defendant was consistent.”
He also argued that New York law extending the limitation period for sexual abuse violated his constitutional rights.
Message sent to the e -mail address mentioned for him did not apply for a comment.
In January, the judge in the case concluded a judgment regarding the failure to perform the obligation to Tobback, which did not lose himself in court when for this purpose. Then the judge planned the trial only about damages last month to determine how much Tababok had to pay to women.