Vin Diesel hit with sexual battery lawsuit by former assistant
- By Reuters -
- Dec 22, 2023
A former assistant to the actor Vin Diesel filed a lawsuit against him on Thursday alleging that he sexually battered her in 2010 and that she was fired from her job just hours later.
In the lawsuit, filed in a Los Angeles court, the former assistant Asta Jonasson alleges that Diesel assaulted her in an Atlanta hotel room while the pair were working on the movie “Fast Five.”
Legal and public relations representatives for Vin Diesel did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
“Sexual harassment in the workplace will never stop if powerful men are protected from accountability,” Jonasson’s lawyer Claire-Lise Kutlay said in a written statement. “We hope her courageous decision to come forward helps create lasting change and empowers other survivors.”
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The lawsuit alleges Jonasson was fired from her job as assistant to Vin Diesel.
The lawsuit said Jonasson remained silent for years “afraid to speak out against one of the world’s highest-grossing actors, afraid she would be ostracized from the industry.”
Jonasson is one of many women to accuse prominent entertainment industry figures of sexual misconduct since the #MeToo movement began in 2017, in the aftermath of accusations against now-imprisoned movie producer Harvey Weinstein.