Jimmy Fallon, Tracy Morgan and SNL showrunner Lorne Michaels must be named as suspects in a sexual assault case against ex-SNL star Horatio Sanz, says the woman who accused Sanz of grooming and groping her when she was 17.
The Pennsylvania woman, anonymized as Jane Doe in the suit, said Sanz, 53, took her to two after-parties and kissed her inappropriately, groped and digitally penetrated her at a party in May 2002.
She also claims the incident happened as Fallon, Morgan, Tina Fey, Seth Meyers, Maya Rudolph, Will Ferrell and other SNL stars watched, according to her affidavit.
She claimed the stars all seemed “exhausted” by the action, but continued to stare or continue at a wild party attended by “sex workers” and allegedly thrown by Tracy Morgan.
The woman states that alleged behavior means that a number of Sanz’s fellow comics must also be held liable for the abuse he allegedly inflicted on her. All the people she has accused deny her allegations of wrongdoing.
The woman claims Jimmy Fallon, left, was fully aware of her relationship with Sanz and witnessed the groping on May 11, 2002, in Manhattan’s Ristorante Barolo.
Sanz was a regular on the NBC comedy show from 1998-2011
Among those who reportedly observed the groping was Tina Fey, pictured with Sanz
Fellow SNL alumnus Will Ferrell (left) is also said to have watched as the woman was groped by Sanz, according to the affidavit she filed Wednesday.
She said that Fallon and Sanz would drink with her at parties, and Fallon even asked her how old she was, to which she replied that she was a junior in high school.
“I was horrified when I realized I was featured in most of the SNL cast,” the prosecutor said, “and I expressed my discomfort to Sanz.”
“He waved my shock and shame away and told me to go on with him, despite everyone staring at us.”
Sanz has repeatedly denied the allegations, and NBC had denied any liability for the actor’s “after-hours” behavior in a memo filed in April to dismiss the woman’s lawsuit.
Sanz’s attorney Andrew Brettler previously claimed the woman had demanded $7.5 million in exchange for her silence before filing the lawsuit last summer.
The Jane Doe claimed that she attended at least 12 different parties with the SNL cast between May 2001 and November 2002, starting when she was only 16 years old.
She repeated allegations that Sanz started grooming her when she was just a 15-year-old intern working for Jimmy Fallon, who reportedly passed messages for Sanz.
She said that Fallon saw the teen drinking alcohol with Sanz at an SNL afterparty on May 11, 2002 at the Ristorante Barolo, in Manhattan, and was just having a good time.
“Aww, you guys,” Fallon is said to have said as he hugged the two.
Sanz would then have taken her and a few other people on a limousine ride to drink champagne while en route to another afterparty hosted by SNL alumnus Tracy Morgan.
“Both at these parties and after, Sanz kissed me, fondled my breasts and butt, and digitally penetrated my genitals,” she said.
Sanz, now 53, is featured here in 2019 at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas
The unnamed woman has asked SNL showrunner Lorne Michaels as a defendant in the case
Fallon and Sanz attend a party for author Danny Seo in New York City in May 2002, the same month the woman claims the attack took place
“At one point, when we were both standing in front of the entrance, he lifted my breasts out of my shirt from behind so that the only thing covering them were his hands.
“He also rubbed my vagina all over my clothes,” she added.
She claimed she was in full view of the stars of the SNL, including Gasteyer, Fey and Dratch during the party,” who she described as “shocked” by the scene as they tried to look away.
“Gasteyer’s jaw dropped, her arms trembled, and she was visibly startled,” said the Jane Doe.
“Besides Gasteyer, I saw Fey and Dratch looking at us and laughing,” she added. “When I watched Fey and Dratch giggle excitedly and talk with their hands over their mouths as they looked straight at me and Sanz, they were startled and got behind other people.”
Then there were Rudolph and Meyers, who reportedly stood in front of the plaintiff and Sanz as he groped her, with Rudolph appearing “exhausted,” the woman said.
She noted that Ferrell had also looked at her when Sanz allegedly groped her.
The celebrities have not discussed the alleged incident, but some have been vocal about the #MeToo movement.
In 2020, Fey claimed disgraced actor Kevin Spacey punched her at an SNL afterparty in 2006, and in 2018 Jimmy Fallon hastily canceled an episode of Tonight Show after his guest, Norm MacDonald, sparked controversy after criticizing the #MeToo movement .
Meyers has spoken out against sexual assault and called on predators to be held accountable through the movement.
In 2018, he horrified James Franco over the controversial actor’s allegation during a shocking interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
The second afterparty where many SNL cast members reportedly witnessed the groping was thrown by Tracy Morgan (right), with multiple people saying that sex workers attended the bash
The Jane Doe who charged Sanz said Ana Gasteyer witnessed the groping, and her jaw dropped.
Maya Rudolph (left) and Rachel Dratch (right) also reportedly witnessed the incident and appeared ‘polished’ and shocked
Sanz has denied the allegations against him
The woman claims this was the party Dratch described in her 2012 memoir, Girl Walks into a Bar, as “the most memorable after-party” of her time at SNL, where “this party alternated, serving cocktails or possibly sexual favors, were stripped-down ladies.’
In the affidavit, the plaintiff also alleges that Sanz admitted what he did in a text exchange in 2019, where he reportedly wrote, “It was a goddamn big mistake.
‘I’m very sorry. If you want to meet me, you have every right. Trust me, I’m not like that anymore.
“I thought I was giving you some fun at those parties. After the Tracy party, I really tried to fix what I had done.’
Doe’s lawsuit alleged that because of her experiences, she became isolated from her peers even after she was enrolled in college, and suffered from embarrassment and depression, eventually starting to use “dissociative drugs” to the extent that she had to be hospitalized in 2005. be included.
While she was recovering, she said she exchanged a text message with Sanz, who turned the conversation toward sex, as was his custom, and told her she had a “kick a** body” as a 17-year-old.
The two kept in touch over the years. According to the lawsuit, Sanz’s interactions with her continued to be “manipulative, humiliating, abusive and abusive towards her.”
In 2019, the actor is said to have confided to Doe that he entertained himself during their online chats when she was in high school.
Doe said that despite having chat logs from the early 2000s documenting her conversations with Sanz, the testimony of her friends, and even Sanz’s alleged confession, the actor has still not held accountable for his actions.
Sanz appeared on the NBC stack from 1998-2011. In recent years he has appeared in films such as Clifford, Zeroville, The Sex Addict and Actors Anonymous; and TV shows such as GLOW, Black Monday, Duncanville, and The Mandalorian.
