A U.S. district judge has dismissed a lawsuit accusing Madison Square Garden Chief Executive James L. Dolan and disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein of sex trafficking and sexual assault.
Judge Percy Anderson scrapped the complaint on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of Central California.
The lawsuit, filed in January, alleged that Dolan “manipulated” then-27-year-old massage therapist Kellye Croft and brought her to Los Angeles “under fraudulent pretenses for Dolan to engage in unlawful and unwelcome sex acts with her.”
The complaint also accused Weinstein of sexually assaulting Croft, alleging that Dolan, 69, knew about and funded the abuse through his corporate entities, including some connected to music executive Irving Azoff.
“We respectfully disagree with the District Court’s decision, which we believe incorrectly interprets the federal sex trafficking law and undermines critically important protections for sex trafficking survivors,” Croft’s attorneys Kevin Mintzer and Meredith Fireto said in a statement. “We will be appealing this decision and are confident that the Court of Appeals will correct this injustice.”
A spokesperson for Dolan lauded the court’s ruling in a statement deeming the lawsuit “a malicious attempt to assert horrific allegations by an attorney who subverts the legal system for personal gain.”
A spokesperson for Weinstein also denied the claims when the complaint was filed. A representative for Azoff, who is not named in the lawsuit, has said that “neither he nor his companies had any involvement in any alleged misconduct by others.”
Weinstein, 72, is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence for raping a woman at a Beverly Hills hotel in 2013. He is in custody in New York, where he is set to be retried for rape.
The “Shakespeare in Love” and “Pulp Fiction” producer was sentenced in 2020 to 23 years in prison in New York for assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haley and once-aspiring actress Jessica Mann. That conviction was overturned in April following an appeal by Weinstein.
Numerous public figures, Weinstein accusers and their supporters, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, condemned the reversal.
“Although victims have lost this battle, they have not lost the war,” Haley’s attorney Gloria Allred said, calling the New York court’s decision a “significant step backwards for the ‘Me Too’ movement.”
Weinstein has consistently denied all wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York that wasn’t part of the 2020 case. Details of the fresh allegations were not immediately available, according to the Associated Press.
Earlier this month, Weinstein was “rushed” to Bellevue Hospital in New York to undergo heart surgery and receive treatment for “several medical issues,” according to his representatives. As of Sept. 9, the former entertainment mogul was out of surgery and in recovery, they said.
Times staffers Stacy Perman and Scott Wilson contributed to this report.
