Attorneys for a former model/actress who says Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted her in a Beverly Hills hotel room in 2013 want to probe the producer's financial records in anticipation of a possible finding that she is entitled to punitive damages.
The plaintiff is identified as Jane Doe No. 1 in the Santa Monica Superior Court lawsuit filed Feb. 9, which alleges sexual battery, false imprisonment, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. On Thursday, Doe's attorneys filed court papers with Judge Elaine W. Mandel asking that they be permitted to examine Weinstein's wealth.
"Because plaintiff Jane Doe 1 has a substantial probability -- in fact, a near certainty -- of prevailing on her punitive damages claim against Weinstein, she should be permitted to conduct discovery into Weinstein's financial condition...," Doe's attorneys contend in their court papers.
On Dec. 19, Weinstein, 71, was convicted of three of the seven criminal counts he was facing -- forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object. All three of those counts related to Doe, with the crimes occurring on or about Feb. 18, 2013. Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Feb. 23.
"Put differently, Weinstein's criminal conviction conclusively establishes his liability for plaintiff Jane Doe 1's cause of action for sexual battery ..., entitling her to obtain punitive damages against Weinstein which she is seeking," Doe's lawyers further argue in their court papers.
Weinstein's attorney Jennifer Bonjean, told KNX News reporter Nataly Tavidian, "The motion is grossly premature. We are still going to be litigating liability in this case. Our position is that Jane Doe 1 has not met her burden of demonstrating that she was assaulted by Mr. Weinstein."
The defense argues that though Weinstein was convicted in court, the conviction is not final. Bonjean said, "It has to go up to the reviewing court, and what the general public doesn't know and what the jury did not know is that it was denied critical information that would have completely rebutted Jane Doe's story."
According to Doe's suit, she attended a film festival and alleges that Weinstein came to her hotel room unexpectedly after she attended events that day.
"After he was done raping her, he acted as if nothing out of the ordinary happened and left," the plaintiff's court papers allege.
Doe did not report the incident until 2017, when she had a talk with her daughter, during a time when Weinstein was at the forefront of the #metoo movement, according to her attorneys' court papers.
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