A former aide to popular action star Vin Diesel has filed a lawsuit against him for alleged sexual abuse in 2010.
According to Vanity Fair, Astra Jonasson (the plaintiff) filed the complaint filed in Los Angeles. In which she claims to have been assaulted by Diesel while he was filming Fast Five in Atlanta. The suit states that she served as his assistant during the production. And she was in charge of organizing and following him to events. As well as remaining physically close to him in case someone took images of him with women.
The suit goes on to state that in September 2010. Diesel asked Jonasson to wait in his suite at the St. Regis hotel. While he entertained guests he brought back from a club. However, once the other women left. Th actor “grabbed Ms. Jonasson’s wrists, one with each of his hands, and pulled her onto the bed.” She fled his grasp and asked him to stop while waiting for him to leave.
Instead, the actor grabbed Jonasson and began to grope her while begging him to stop. “Ms. Jonasson was afraid to more forcibly refuse her supervisor, knowing that getting him out of that room was both crucial to her personal safety and job security.” The suit further added. “But this hope died when Vin Diesel dropped to his knees, pushed Ms. Jonasson’s dress up toward her waist, and molested her body, running his hands over Ms. Jonasson’s upper legs, including her inner thighs.”
Aside from sexual battery, the suit also claims that Diesel’s company unlawfully fired Jonasson from her position shortly after the incident. “It was clear to her that she was being fired because she was no longer useful—Vin Diesel had used her to fulfill his sexual desires, and she had resisted his sexual assaults.”
In response to the claims, Diesel’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, told Vanity Fair. “Let me be very clear: Vin Diesel categorically denies this claim in its entirety. This is the first he has ever heard about this more than 13-year-old claim made by a purportedly 9-day employee. There is clear evidence that completely refutes these outlandish allegations.”
This suit is one of several filed under California’s Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act. The law provides sexual assault survivors with a one-year window to file suits. Even when such cases have exceeded the statute of limitations.