A lawsuit filed Monday in New York Metropolis alleges that Hollywood writer-director James Toback is a “serial sexual predator” who focused and abused dozens of girls over many years whereas usually saying he needed to solid them in his movies.
The go well with, filed in New York Supreme Court docket in Manhattan, lists 38 plaintiffs, with many recognized as “Jane Doe.” Fifteen are recognized by identify.
The Harvard Membership of New York Metropolis, the place the go well with alleges Toback “lured” a number of of the ladies, can be named as a defendant.
The Each day Beast first reported the go well with.
Toback, 78, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter and director whose movie credit embody “The Choose-Up Artist,” “Bugsy” and “Tyson,” was accused of sexual misconduct by greater than 30 girls in a Los Angeles Instances report 5 years in the past.
The story was revealed weeks after the New York Instances’ report on Harvey Weinstein helped ignite the MeToo motion.
Prosecutors in Los Angeles declined to file prices in 5 of the instances, saying in 2018 that the statute of limitations had expired in all of them, in line with the Related Press.
A lawyer who has beforehand represented Toback couldn’t be reached Monday. Efforts to achieve the writer-director had been unsuccessful and it wasn’t clear if he has a lawyer or consultant to talk on his behalf.
Toback has beforehand denied the allegations, telling Rolling Stone in 2017: “The concept I’d provide an element to anybody for another purpose than that she or he was gonna be the very best of anybody I may discover is so disgusting to me.”
Legal professionals within the go well with filed Monday mentioned that Toback had a “Modus Operandi” that allegedly included approaching younger girls on the streets of New York Metropolis and showering them with compliments whereas touting his Hollywood credentials.
Toback would allegedly pitch the ladies on showing in a forthcoming movie and prepare a gathering to debate the function, the go well with says.
Six of the ladies mentioned their conferences occurred on the Harvard Membership New York Metropolis, a non-public venue for alumni and school, the place he allegedly sexually assaulted, abused and battered the ladies in its “eating room, hallways, stairwells, bogs and lodge rooms.”
Toback graduated from the college in 1966, in line with the go well with. A consultant of the membership didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
In 2017, the membership terminated Toback’s membership, the go well with says.
In some instances cited within the go well with, Toback allegedly blocked girls from escaping or chased them after they fled earlier than sexually assaulting them. In a number of cases embody within the go well with, Toback allegedly masturbated in entrance of the ladies or on them, and penetrated them with out their consent.
Toback then allegedly threatened the ladies, saying he would smash their careers in the event that they instructed anybody concerning the assaults and telling them he had ties to organized crime teams “and knew individuals who harm individuals,” the go well with says.
The 89-page go well with alleges assault, battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional misery and negligence. The go well with doesn’t specify damages.
