In a sexual assault verdict, Oscar-nominated writer James Toback was ordered to pay $1.7 billion to 40 women

40 women who accused Hollywood director and writer James Toback of sexual abuse and other crimes over four decades have been ordered to pay $1.68 billion in damages. A New York jury found Toback guilty on Wednesday (9 April) of abusing his power in the film industry to sexually assault women between 1979 and 2014. Toback was one of the first people to be accused of sexual assault during the #MeToo scandal in 2017. The jury’s decision marks the largest jury award since the advent of the #MeToo movement, as well as in New York state history.

 In an interview, Nix Patterson LLP attorney Brad Beckworth stated that the plaintiffs believe a verdict of this magnitude will convey a message to powerful individuals "who don't treat women appropriately." The decision is based on a lawsuit that was filed in Manhattan in 2022. In that year, New York state made it possible for people to sue for sexual assault within a year, even if it happened decades ago. As of Wednesday night, the verdict documentation had not yet been made available by the court. According to Beckworth, the verdict awarded the plaintiffs $280 million in compensatory damages and $1.4 billion in punitive damages. “This verdict is about justice,” Beckworth said in a statement.  "But more importantly, it's about taking power back from the abusers—as well as their and their enablers—and returning it to those he tried to control and silence," the author states. "Any sexual encounter or contact between Plaintiffs and Defendant was consensual," said Toback, who had previously represented himself. Additionally, he argued that the New York law that extended the statute of limitations for cases of sexual abuse infringed on his constitutional rights. The 80-year-old was nominated for an Oscar for writing Bugsy, starring Warren Beatty in 1991. He has worked in Hollywood for over 40 years. Accusations that he engaged in years of sexual abuse surfaced in late 2017, first reported by the Los Angeles Times just two weeks after the New York Times published a history of harassment claims against Harvey Weinstein, who in 2020 was sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual assault charges.

 In five cases involving Toback that they reviewed in 2018, Los Angeles prosecutors stated that the statutes of limitations had run out and decided not to bring criminal charges against him. A few days after the state's Adult Survivors Act went into effect, the plaintiffs then filed a lawsuit in New York. The lawyers said they discovered a pattern of Toback attempting to lure young women on the streets of New York into meeting him by falsely promising roles in his films and then subjecting them to sexual acts, threats and psychological coercion.

 The case's lead plaintiff, Mary Monahan, described the verdict as "validation" for her and the other women. “For decades, I carried this trauma in silence, and today, a jury believed me.  trusted us. That fundamentally alters everything," she stated in a statement. This verdict is more than just a number; it is a statement. We cannot be thrown away. We are not dishonest. 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.”

 Another plaintiff, Karen Sklaire Watson, stated that the verdict will make New York safer for women. “We’re drawing a line in the sand: Predators cannot hide behind fame, money, or power,” she said in a statement.  "Not here. Not any longer. A request for comment sent by AP to an email address listed for him was not immediately answered.

 In January, the judge in the case entered a default judgment against Toback, who had failed to appear in court when ordered to do so.  The judge then set up a trial for just damages last month to find out how much Toback owed the women.