Writer-director James Toback, among the first big names to be accused of sexual abuse in the #MeToo movement of 2017, has been ordered to pay what is reportedly the largest sex assault penalty in New York history, per Variety. Twenty women testified in person and another 20 spoke via video deposition during a seven-day trial in New York, which the 80-year-old Toback did not attend, resulting in a default judgment against him. A six-person jury then convened to decide damages, awarding a combined $1.68 billion—$280 million in compensatory damages and $1.4 billion in punitive damages—to the victims.
Toback—who's been accused of sexual assault or harassment by hundreds of women, including Selma Blair and Rachel McAdams—denied the claims against him, saying all sexual activity was consensual. Some accusers brought a lawsuit in December 2022 after New York suspended the statute of limitations for sexual assault for one year. They said Toback coerced women into meetings he framed as interviews or auditions, then sexually assaulted them at locations around New York across four decades, between 1979 and 2014, per the Los Angeles Times. After two failed attempts to have the case dismissed last year, Toback stopped participating entirely.
Now, "this will be his legacy," lead plaintiff Mary Monahan tells the Times. In a statement to Variety, Monahan says the verdict is a declaration that victims are "not liars" and "not collateral damage in someone else's power trip." "We were all so ashamed. You just don't talk about it, not even to your family. So to be heard with such humanity and then receive this award ... I can't tell you how healing that feels," plaintiff Marianne Hettinger tells the Times. Victims say the case was about justice, not a financial award, though Ross Leonoudakis, a member of the trial team, says "we'll try to recover it," per Variety. (More James Toback stories.)
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