AP -A New York jury on Wednesday awarded $1.68 billion in damages to 40 women who accused writer and director James Toback of sexual abuse and other crimes over a span of 35 years, according to lawyers representing the plaintiffs.
It marks one of the largest jury awards since the advent of the #MeToo movement, as well as in New York state history, said attorney Brad Beckworth, of the law firm Nix Patterson LLP, in an interview. The plaintiffs, he said, believe such a large verdict will send a message to powerful individuals “who don’t treat women appropriately.”
The plaintiffs then filed a lawsuit in New York a few days after the state’s Adult Survivors Act went into effect. 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.
Mary Monahan, a lead plaintiff in the case, called the jury award “validation” for her and the other women.
“For decades, I carried this trauma in silence, and today, a jury believed me. Believed us. That changes everything,” she said in a statement. “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.”
