New York Jury Awards $1.68 Billion to 40 Women Who Accused Hollywood Director of Sexual Abuse

Sexual harassment claims against the Oscar-nominated screenwriter James Toback surfaced during the 2017 #MeToo movement.

James Toback arrives at the 2014 AFI Fest "The Gambler" in Los Angeles on Nov. 10, 2014. Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

A New York jury in the sexual assault trial of Hollywood director James Toback awarded nearly $1.7 billion in damages to 40 women who accused him of various sex crimes going back decades.

According to an April 9 statement issued by Nix Patterson, LLP, a Texas-based law firm that represented the plaintiffs, the jury awarded $280 million in compensatory damages and $1.4 billion in punitive damages on Wednesday following a week-long trial.

“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,” Brad Beckworth, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said in a statement.

“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 [#MeToo] movement is not over. There is more work to do,” he said.

“I’m very proud of all of these heroic women. They were brutally honest with the jury. Their testimony was empowering—for them and for all women.”

In a statement, Mary Monahan, a lead plaintiff in the case, said the jury’s decision was not just a verdict but validation.

“For decades, I carried this trauma in silence, and today, a jury believed me. Believed us. That changes everything,” she said.

“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.”

Sexual Abuse Claims

Claims that Toback, 80, engaged in a pattern of sexual abuse first emerged during the 2017 #MeToo movement.

On Oct. 22, 2017, the Los Angeles Times reported on sexual harassment allegations levied against the Oscar-nominated screenwriter. According to the publication, Toback denied the claims outlined in the exposé, which was published mere weeks after The New York Times covered similar allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein.

Selma Blair and Rachel McAdams later came forward with their own claims that Toback sexually harassed them early in their acting careers, which they detailed in an article published by Vanity Fair on Oct. 26, 2017.

The lawsuit against the “An Imperfect Murder” director was filed on Dec. 5, 2022, in the New York Supreme Court under the state’s Adult Survivors Act, which temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for sexual assault claims from Nov. 24, 2022, to Nov. 24, 2023.

Per the complaint, Toback allegedly “prowled the streets of New York City, targeting young women ... to abuse who were or wanted to be involved in the entertainment industry.”

“For at least four decades, Defendant James Toback used his reputation, power, and influence in the entertainment industry, including as an award-winning movie director, screenwriter, and member of the prestigious Harvard Club of New York City, to lure young women, including Plaintiffs, through fraud, coercion, force, and intimidation into compromising situations where he falsely imprisoned, sexually abused, assaulted, and/or battered them,” the complaint reads.

The lawsuit alleged that Toback falsely promised women opportunities in his movies.

“The Plaintiffs acted at all times under duress due to Toback’s repeated explicit and implicit threats of blacklisting them in the industry, physically harming them, and/or even killing them if they did not comply with and remain silent about the sexual abuse they endured,” the complaint reads.

A representative for Toback, who has denied the allegations, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The director told Rolling Stone in October 2017 that the accusations against him are “things [he] would never have done.”

“The idea that I would offer a part to anyone for any other reason than that he or she was gonna be the best of anyone I could find is so disgusting to me,” he told the publication in part.

The Harvard Club of New York was initially named as a defendant in the lawsuit, which accused the private social club of being negligent for allowing Toback “to remain as a member and to freely access its facilities to perpetrate his sexual abuse against young women.” However, the plaintiffs discontinued their case against the Midtown Manhattan-based club in January 2024.

Following Wednesday’s verdict, Christina Yarnell, Nix Patterson’s chief talent officer, told The Epoch Times that the judge presiding over the case will issue a formal order.