The legal team for embattled film producer Harvey Weinstein has fired back at a lawsuit filed against him, contending that he didn’t engage in sex trafficking, in part because the plaintiff didn’t say that Weinstein paid for the alleged sexual encounter.
Kadian Noble filed her lawsuit alleging sex trafficking in November, contending that Weinstein enticed her with the promise of a film role. Noble alleges that, in February 2014, Weinstein asked Noble to come to his hotel room in Cannes, where Weinstein began massaging her, then groped her breasts while she exclaimed “No, Harvey, no!”
According to the suit, Weinstein went on to rub Noble’s breast and buttocks, pull her shirt down and ultimately forced her to masturbate him.
However, in court papers filed Tuesday, Weinstein’s legal team accuses Noble of asking the court “to impose a tortured interpretation of an otherwise clear law addressing human slavery, so that she may seek redress in the United States for Harvey Weinstein allegedly sexually assaulting her in Cannes, France in February 2014.”
The court papers continue, “What Plaintiff describes in her Complaint is not unlawful commercial and economic activity as proscribed by the sex trafficking statute she sues under, but purported unwanted sexual activity … While Plaintiff’s Complaint is replete with salacious details regarding alleged sexual activity between Plaintiff and Weinstein, it fails to allege that money or an item of value was exchanged for the purported sex act.”
The papers go on to ask the court to toss Noble’s case, noting, “WHEREFORE, for the reasons set forth above, Defendant Harvey Weinstein’s motion to dismiss Plaintiff’s Complaint as to him with prejudice … should be granted in all respects.”
Weinstein has been accused of sexual misconduct of numerous women. Weinstein has denied the accusations.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.