Woman alleges Jimmy Fallon enabled sexual assault by ex-‘SNL’ star Horatio Sanz

Los Angeles, Aug. 24 (IANS): After suing former ‘SNL’ star Horatio Sanz for sexual assault, a woman has sought the court’s permission to add Jimmy Fallon, Lorne Michaels, and Tracy Morgan as defendants, arguing that they enabled Sanz’ misconduct, reports ‘Variety’.

The woman, identified only as Jane Doe, alleges that Sanz “groomed” her when she was a teen fan of the show. She also alleges that Sanz kissed her, groped her, and attempted to digitally penetrate her at a party in May 2002, when she was 17 years old.

According to ‘Variety’, she filed suit in August 2021 under a state law that opened a two-year “lookback window” allowing victims of child sex abuse to bring claims that otherwise would have been barred by the statute of limitations.

More recently, New York City amended its own law to create a two-year lookback window, allowing accusers to sue anyone who enabled such conduct.

According to the complaint, the accuser and her teenage friends regularly attended ‘SNL’ after-parties in 2000 to 2002.

The suit alleges that Fallon and Sanz would drink with her at these parties, and that Fallon once questioned her about her age, and she responded that she was a junior in high school. She also met Michaels at one of the parties, who gave her advice on pursuing a writing career, according to the complaint.

‘Variety’ further states that the suit alleges that Morgan rented out a space for an after-after-party in May 2002, where Sanz allegedly groped her against her will.

Sanz’s lawyer, Andrew Brettler, has denied the allegation, saying that the woman sought a $7.5 million payout before filing the suit last year.

The original complaint was filed by attorney Jeffrey P. Fitz, naming Sanz and NBCUniversal as defendants. Fitz also alleged that 18 NBCU employees either knew or should have known of Sanz’ grooming and sexual misconduct, including Fallon, Morgan and Michaels, and numerous other ‘SNL’ cast members.

NBCUniversal filed a motion to dismiss the complaint in April, arguing that the network was not responsible for Sanz’ off-hours conduct.