Jury Orders James Toback to Pay $1.68B to 40 Women In Sexual Assault Trial

Director James Toback — among the first Hollywood men to be accused in the #MeToo movement — has been ordered to pay $1.68 billion to 40 women for sexual assault and other kinds of abuse.

A New York jury on Wednesday awarded the women $280 million in compensatory damages and $1.4 billion in punitive damages, intended to punish Toback for malicious conduct.

Toback, who helmed the films Black and White (1999) and Two Girls and a Guy (1998) and was nominated for an Oscar for writing the Warren Beatty film Bugsy (1991), didn’t mount a defense at the trial and wasn’t represented by a lawyer. The court in January issued a default judgment, reserved for cases in which the defendant fails to appear.

When allegations of pervasive sexual harassment first surfaced in a report from The Los Angeles Times in which more than 30 women came forward, Toback denied ever meeting most of the accusers. He also claimed it was “biologically impossible” for him to engage in the alleged behavior, saying he had diabetes and a heart condition that required medication.

Brad Beckworth, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the verdict is “about justice” but also “taking power back from the abusers.” He added, “Several years ago, when the Me-Too movement began, I think many of us thought that we were past the point where men in positions of power would prey on women and try to steal their dignity and honor in exchange for allowing them to advance in their careers. We now know that the movement didn’t go far enough. We still have a lot of people in this country who abuse their power—and there are many more who turn a blind eye to it.”

The lawsuit, filed in 2022, accused Toback of leveraging his power in the entertainment industry to lure young women into meetings under the pretext of discussing potential movie roles. He’d direct them to engage in sexual behavior, including taking off their clothes or masturbating in front of him, saying it was “part of the job,” according to the complaint.

When some of the women tried to escape, Toback allegedly trapped them. Several of the instances involved him “rubbing his genitals up against them and ejaculating on them without their consent,” the lawsuit said. The complaint also alleged that Toback “would forcibly touch and or penetrate his victims’ genitals with his hands and/or mouth against their will.”

The women were told by Toback, who said he had connections to the mob, that he’d ruin their careers if they reported the assaults. The alleged misconduct spanned four decades from at least 1979 to 2014.

The lawsuit was filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which effectively suspended time constraints on claims involving sex offenses for a year. Several high-profile figures across Hollywood have been sued under the law, including Sean “Diddy” Combs, Bill Cosby and Jimmy Iovine.

It’s unknown whether the award for punitive damages will stand. Though New York doesn’t have a cap, there’s typically a maximum amount the figure can exceed compensatory damages.