A New York jury awarded $1.68 billion to 40 women who accused writer-director James Toback of sexual abuse and related misconduct. The April 9, 2025 award followed a trial limited to damages after Toback failed to appear when ordered. It was a civil verdict, not a criminal conviction; the available reporting does not establish whether the award was later appealed, changed, paid or collected.
What the jury awarded
The reported total was $1.68 billion. The Associated Press said plaintiffs’ attorney Brad Beckworth provided the breakdown: $280 million in compensatory damages and $1.4 billion in punitive damages. AP noted that court documentation of the verdict had not been released by the time of its report, so the component figures should be understood as attributed to plaintiffs’ counsel.
| Damages category | Reported amount | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Compensatory | $280 million, as reported by AP from plaintiffs’ attorney Brad Beckworth in April 2025 | Damages intended to compensate plaintiffs for harm. |
| Punitive | $1.4 billion, as reported by AP from plaintiffs’ attorney Brad Beckworth in April 2025 | Damages intended to punish and deter misconduct, rather than compensate for losses. |
| Total | $1.68 billion, reported by AP and the Los Angeles Times in April 2025 | The jury’s reported award to 40 women. |
The headline phrase “must pay” describes the verdict’s award, not a verified payment or collection. The contemporaneous reports do not establish its current enforcement status.
What the lawsuit alleged
The women’s lawsuit alleged that Toback used meetings presented as interviews or auditions as settings for sexual abuse and related misconduct. The Los Angeles Times reported that 20 women testified in person and another 20 gave prerecorded-video testimony during the weeklong trial. Those allegations and testimony formed part of a civil case; they should not be recast as separate criminal convictions.
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The Harvard Club of New York City was initially named because the suit alleged Toback met some women there. The Los Angeles Times reported that the club was later dismissed from the case by agreement and was not part of the award against Toback.
How the case reached a damages trial
- December 2022: The women filed suit in Manhattan under New York’s Adult Survivors Act. The law opened a one-year window for civil claims over sexual assault allegations, including claims involving events that had happened decades earlier, according to the Associated Press.
- January 2025: AP reported that a judge entered a default judgment after Toback failed to appear when ordered. The judge set a trial limited to damages. The Los Angeles Times reported that Toback stopped participating after a judge denied his second request to dismiss the case, leaving him unrepresented at the weeklong trial.
- April 9, 2025: The jury returned the reported $1.68 billion damages award for the 40 plaintiffs.
What Toback said, and what the verdict means
The Associated Press reported that Toback denied in court filings that he committed any sexual offense and said any sexual contact was consensual. He also argued that New York’s law extending the time to bring claims violated his constitutional rights. The reported jury award came in the civil lawsuit; it is not a criminal conviction.
That distinction matters because the criminal process was separate. AP reported that Los Angeles prosecutors reviewed five cases in 2018, determined the statutes of limitations had expired and declined to bring criminal charges. That decision concerned those cases and was not the New York civil verdict.
After the verdict, lead plaintiff Mary Monahan said, “For decades, I carried this trauma in silence, and today, a jury believed me.” Plaintiffs’ attorney Brad Beckworth said, “This verdict is about justice.” Both statements were reported by AP as reactions to the outcome, not as findings by the court.
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What is known about the award now
The available April 2025 reporting establishes what the jury awarded at that time, but does not establish whether Toback later appealed, whether the award was stayed or modified, or whether any amount has been paid or collected. It is therefore accurate to say the jury awarded $1.68 billion; it is not established by those reports that Toback has paid that sum or that the award is final.
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