Oscar-nominated filmmaker ‘ordered to pay back $1,600,000,000’ after sexual assault trial involving 40 women
More than 300 women have made shocking claims against the director.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker James Toback has been ordered to pay back $1.6 billion (£1.2bn) as a result of his sexual assault trial involving 40 women, according to reports.
The Bugsy screenwriter, 80, was accused of sexually assaulting several women during the height of the MeToo movement. His trial saw 40 women join together to accuse him in court of sexual assault, false imprisonment, coercion, and psychological abuse, (per Variety).
Though 40 women were involved in this trial, The Los Angeles Times reports that the number of women who have accused Toback of sexual assault or sexual harassment stands at 395.
Toback – who is known for films such as The Pick-up Artist, Two Girls and a Guy, and Black and White, and who was nominated for best original screenplay Academy Award for Bugsy in 1991 – has strongly denied these claims.
A jury has reportedly ordered Toback to pay his victims $1.6bn, divided between $280million (£214m) in compensatory damages and $1.4bn (£1bn) in punitive damages.
All 40 women testified in the trial, which began this year after charges were filed in 2022. Twenty appeared in person, while the other 20 appeared via pre-recorded video.
The filmmaker has been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault by more than 300 women (Picture: Eugene Gologursky/WireImage)It was reported that Toback did not attend the trial, which lasted seven days in New York City.
Brad Beckworth, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said in a statement after the verdict was announced: ‘This verdict is about justice. But more importantly, It’s about taking power back from the abusers — and their enablers — and returning it to those he tried to control and silence.
‘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.’
Mary Monahan, the lead plaintiff, added: ‘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. This verdict is more than a number — it’s a declaration.
Toback, left, has strongly denied the claims (Picture: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)‘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.’
In 2017, The LA Times reported that 38 women had come forward alleging that Toback sexually harassed them during meetings, asking them personal questions such as ‘How often do you masturbate?’ and ‘How much pubic hair do you have?’
Some allege that he would ‘dry-hump’ them or masturbate in front of them.
Toback claimed he had never met most of the women named in the LA Times report, and if he did it ‘was for five minutes and have no recollection’.
He also said it would have been ‘biologically impossible’ for him to behave as the women described as he had diabetes and was on medication for a heart condition.
Selma Blair is among the women who levied allegations against Toback (Picture: River Callaway/WWD via Getty Images)A range of actresses, including Selma Blair, Rachel McAdams and Julianne Moore stepped forward with allegations against the filmmaker.
The Beverly Hills Police Department confirmed in November 2017 that they were probing both Toback and disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein after a number of complaints were made against both.
These allegations date back to the 1980s and come up to 2015.
The lawsuit was made possible because of New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which, in 2022, allowed a one-year window for survivors of sexual abuse to file civil claims, no matter how long ago the abuse took place.
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