Harvey Weinstein Sued For ‘Sex Trafficking’ By Aspiring Actress
An aspiring actress claims Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted her after luring her to his hotel room in Cannes with promises that he would help her career. She is now suing the disgraced former Hollywood mogul under federal sex trafficking laws.
On Monday morning, TMZ broke the story that actress Kadian Noble claims that in February 2014, Harvey Weinstein invited her back to his hotel room in Cannes to discuss her career. Once there, she claims Weinstein began massaging her shoulders and asked her to strut back and forth in front of him as an “audition.”
After groping her breasts, Noble claims that Weinstein pulled her into the bathroom, where he forced himself on her, rubbing her vagina and pulling out his penis to masturbate in front of her. She says he then grabbed her hand and forced her to masturbate him till he ejaculated on the bathroom floor.
The actress says, through her lawyer Jeff Herman, that she felt compelled to comply with Weinstein’s demands because of the benefit he could provide to her career, as well as the threat of damage that could be done to her career if she refused.
Noble is suing Weinstein under the sex trafficking statute because she claims that he tricked her with promises of stardom in exchange for sexual gratification. The sex trafficking statute prohibits a person enlisting another for a sex act using force or the threat of force, coercion or fraud. The statute of limitations for sex trafficking is 10 years. Depending on the decision in this case, this could potentially open Weinstein to other lawsuits for behavior previously considered as activity that fell under shorter statutes of limitations.
Variety has published the content of the actual lawsuit, which names Bob Weinstein and the Weinstein Company as co-defendants. They also published the response from Weinstein’s legal representatives.
“Mr. Weinstein denies allegations of non-consensual sex. Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances.”
Noble’s lawsuit is actually the second lawsuit filed against Weinstein on Monday. According to an article in The Los Angeles Times, an anonymous woman in Great Britain has filed a lawsuit asking for $400,000 in damages from the producer. The woman’s lawyer, Jill Greenfield, says that her client has yet to file charges with Scotland Yard but is expected to. If this happens, it would join 11 other investigations into Weinstein that Scotland Yard is currently conducting.
TMZ has previously reported on actress Dominique Huett, the first person to sue both Weinstein and his former company, claiming that the Weinstein Company must have known about an incident where she claimed that Harvey Weinstein forced oral sex on her.
[Featured Image by Vince Bucci/Invision/AP Images]
