Harvey Weinstein’s Ex-Assistant Files Sexual Harassment Lawsuit
One of Harvey Weinstein‘s former personal assistants, Sandeep Rehal, has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against him, Deadline reports. The Weinstein Company (TWC), his brother Robert Weinstein and TWC’s head of Human Resources Frank Gil are also named in the suit.
Rehal worked at TWC from 2013 to 2015. The court filing obtained by Deadline alleges that over the course of more than two years she was “forced to work in a pervasive and severe sexually hostile work environment” that included “endless offensive, degrading, and sexually harassing actions, statements, and touching at the hands of her boss, Harvey Weinstein.”
Along with Rehal dealing with alleged “unwanted touching” and “sexist and sexual language” from Weinstein, the complaint details a number of “tasks” she claims to have been a requirement of her job, including having to “take dictation of emails while he was naked” on a near weekly basis, “maintaining his list of available women” and “manage the stock of his Caverject shots for his erectile dysfunction.” The complaint also claims she was forced to clean up after his sexual encounters – which allegedly took place in his office, hotels, and at an apartment Rehal was allegedly ordered to set up near his office – on a regular basis.
The complaint also alleges that Weinstein asserted his “absolute power” over Rehal and others, by bragging, “I am Harvey Weinstein and you are at Weinstein University. I decide whether or not you graduate.”
It also alleges that Weinstein’s behavior was well known throughout the company. “Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse and conduct, and his use of the office, TWC and the staff to enable it, was common knowledge in the office, to management, to his brother Robert Weinstein and to Frank Gil.”
“Mr. Weinstein categorically denies these claims and his lawyers will respond in the appropriate legal forum with evidence proving they are untrue,” a rep for Harvey Weinstein said in a statement to Rolling Stone.
A rep for TWC and Robert Weinstein did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
“She had no choice but to leave the job she needed to support herself,” the complaint states. “As a result of the hostile work environment caused by sexual harassment, Ms. Rehal has suffered, and continues to suffer from severe emotional distress, anxiety, depression, humiliation, fear, anguish and loss of self-esteem.”
Rehal’s claims are among numerous sexual misconduct allegations levied against Weinstein in the wake of the New York Times article last fall that broke the news of decades of harassment claims against the producer. Another of Weinstein’s ex-assistants, Zelda Perkins, recently broke her NDA to detail her former boss’s alleged sexual misconduct. The NYPD, LAPD and Beverly Hills Police Department are among those who have opened investigations into sexual misconduct allegations involving Weinstein.