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 British actress Kadian Noble, 31, sued the
Hollywood mogul in U.S. District Court on Monday, accusing him
of luring her to his hotel room in Cannes, France, on the
promise of a movie role but instead he forced himself upon her
sexually.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, does not
accuse Weinstein of labor trafficking or other exploitations
commonly associated with the commercial sex industry. But the
criminal law on which the civil claim in based bans the use of
force, threat or coercion for a sex act in exchange for value.
The alleged "value" in this case was the potential for a role in
one of Weinstein's films, according to the complaint. Attorneys
interviewed by Reuters called the lawsuit's application
"innovative" and said they would be watching closely, but
expressed mixed views about whether the approach would work in
federal court.
Noble's lawsuit claimed Weinstein promised her a role in a
Weinstein Company project and that he invited her to his hotel
room in February 2014 in France on the premise of viewing her
show reel, or video highlights of her acting.
Responding to the lawsuit, Holly Baird, a spokeswoman for
Weinstein, on Monday denied the allegation of non-consensual
sex. Baird could not be reached on Tuesday for comment on the
claim that Weinstein violated sex trafficking laws.
Weinstein and his representatives have also denied the
allegations of more than 50 women who have accused him of
sexually harassing or assaulting them over the past three
decades. Reuters has been unable to confirm the allegations.
Noble's case adds another accuser to the list while also seeking
to test the reach of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of
2000, a U.S. law that has been reauthorized or amended several
times, expanding its extraterritorial reach.
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Kathleen Kim, a professor at the Loyola Law School in Las Angeles,
called the lawsuit a "a sound claim" that was well-crafted.
"The way that this complaint has been framed makes a sound
allegation that the force, fraud or coercion for sex took place in
exchange for value, which was the film role," Kim said.
Paul Callan, a former prosecutor with the Brooklyn District
Attorney's office and attorney at the Edelman & Edelman firm in New
York, was more skeptical, doubting federal courts would accept
Herman's theory of the law and calling it "an example of very
creative lawyering."
"It was a statute intended to punish those who participate in human
sex trafficking," Callan said. "What the lawyers here have done is
they have cherry-picked phrases from that statute in an effort to
prove that Harvey Weinstein's actions in allegedly sexually abusing
the actress fits into that statute."
The plaintiff's lawyer, Jeffrey Herman, said he knew of only one
other case that attempted to use the law in a similar way but it
failed to prove the underlying allegations, meaning the expanded
interpretation of the law went untested.
"Given there is no appellate decision, this would be
precedent-making," Herman said. "I don't think it's a stretch at
all."
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Additional reporting by Ben Klayman;
Editing by Toni Reinhold)
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