A jury has awarded $1.68 billion to 40 women who made sexual harassment allegations against award-winning filmmaker James Toback. On Wednesday, the 80-year-old Oscar-nominated screenwriter was found liable in a civil lawsuit for a pattern of sexual assault, false imprisonment, coercion, and psychological abuse. He denied the charges. The ground-breaking verdict included $280 million in compensatory damages and $1.4 billion for punitive damages for the plaintiffs, 20 of whom testified in New York state’s supreme court. Toback did not attend the week-long trial. “We were all so ashamed. You just don’t talk about it, not even to your family,” Marianne Hettinger, one of the plaintiffs, told the Los Angeles Times. “So to be heard with such humanity and then receive this award ... I can’t tell you how healing that feels.” Another plaintiff, Mary Monahan, said that Toback’s nomination for best screenplay at the Academy Awards for “Bugsy” in 1992 would no longer be his “legacy.” “That is immensely validating,” she said. “A jury heard us, and a jury believed us.” The suit was filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act in 2022.
