Ashley Judd can now move forward with her sexual harassment case against Harvey Weinstein after it was initially thrown out. Variety reports that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a previous lower-court decision that rejected Judd’s claim.
Judd’s previous case cited the fact that the actress was not Weinstein’s employee when she claimed that he sexually harassed her. The new ruling states that while she wasn’t technically employed by the disgraced producer, he exerted power over her career at the time.
“(T)heir relationship consisted of an inherent power imbalance wherein Weinstein was uniquely situated to exercise coercion or leverage over Judd by virtue of his professional position and influence as a top producer in Hollywood,” Judge Mary H. Murguia wrote. “Therefore, the district court erred when it dismissed Judd’s sexual harassment claim.”
RELATED: Ashley Judd Reveals Her Harrowing Encounter With Harvey Weinstein
Judd was one of the first actors to come forward with Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey of the New York Times.
In 2017, the actress spoke to Diana Sawyer detailing an alleged incident that occurred in 1997. She claims that Weinstein harassed her, asked her to watch him shower and offered her a massage.
As the ABC reported at the time, Judd decided to strike a “deal” with Weinstein in order to escape.
“He just kept coming at me with all this other stuff. Finally, I just said ‘When I win an Oscar in one of your movies, OK?” she recounted. “He said ‘When you get nominated’. I said ‘No, when I win an Oscar’. And then I just fled.”
The actress explained that no one had warned her about the alleged behaviour of Weinstein before she met with him. But she did feel uneasy when she learned he was in his private room.
“I remember the lurch when I went to the [hotel] desk and I said, ‘Mr Weinstein, is he on the patio?’ And they said ‘He’s in his room’, and I was like ‘Oh, you’re kidding me?”’ she recounted.
Weinstein is currently serving 23 years after being found guilty of committing a criminal sex act in the first degree and third-degree rape.
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