Abuse Lawsuits Filed Against Celebrities Before the Adult Survivor's Act Window Expired

Signed by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul last year, the Adult Survivor’s Act allowed victims of abuse a one-year “lookback window” that would enable them to sue abusers in lawsuits that the statute of limitations might otherwise bar. The one-year window ended yesterday. Ahead of the deadline, several lawsuits were filed. Among them:

— Jamie Foxx was sued for sexual assault for a 2015 incident in which he allegedly aggressively groped a woman on a secluded New York City restaurant rooftop. When a friend caught him in the act, a security guard allegedly injured the woman on Foxx’s behalf. Foxx denies the allegations, stating that the woman filed a similar lawsuit in Brooklyn in 2020 that was dismissed.

— New York City Mayor Eric Adams is being sued for sexual assault, battery, and employment discrimination. The woman is suing for $5 million based on a 1993 incident. Adams denies the allegations and insists he does not know the woman filing the lawsuit.

— Sheila Kennedy, a former Penthouse model, is suing Guns n’ Roses frontman Axl Rose, accusing him of using celebrity to “manipulate, control, and violently sexually assault” in a hotel in 1989. She claims that Rose dragged her by the hair and anally raped her without a condom.

— Two women filed suit against Cuba Gooding, Jr. for sexual assault and battery. One alleged encounter took place in 2018 and one in 2019. (Gooding settled another lawsuit filed under the same law for an alleged rape that took place in 2013).

— Sean P. Diddy Combs was sued by two women, including his longtime ex-girlfriend, with whom he has already settled. Another lawsuit against him stems from an alleged incident in 1991.

— Bill Cosby has been sued for drugging and sexual assault again.

— Photographer Terry Richardson was sued for allegedly forcing a woman to give him oral sex during a photo shoot in 2014.

— Jason Miller, a longtime Trump aid, was sued under the ASA and accused of rape by A.J. Delgado, another Trump aid who claims that Miller drugged and raped her. Miller was booted from Trump’s campaign in 2016 for the same extramarital affair, which resulted in a child.

— Actress Julia Ormond filed a lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein under the Adult Survivor’s Act last month.

The ASA is the law under which E. Jean Carroll successfully sued Donald Trump.