A judge has allowed a former Disney employee, who alleges management concealed a former executive’s alleged pattern of sexual misconduct after she was assaulted, to expand her lawsuit to reflect her 2025 termination.
The Los Angeles Superior Court complaint was originally filed in January 2024 and the plaintiff is identified only as Jane Doe. The suit alleges that the Disney hierarchy did not take sufficient action concerning Nolan Gonzales, then an executive director, allowing him to “harass women with impunity.”
On Thursday, Judge Andrew Esbenshade signed an order permitting Doe to add claims for wrongful termination and failure to timely pay final wages at termination. Disney attorneys did not oppose Doe’s request to add the new claims, which will be added to her existing allegations that include sexual harassment, sexual assault and battery, retaliation and negligence.
Doe seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
According to the amended suit, Doe met Gonzales in August 2014 when she interviewed for an executive assistant position at Fox, where Gonzales was an executive director at the time. Doe was then in her 20s while Gonzales was in his late 30s and/or early forties and called himself a “powerful, well-connected executive,” the revised complaint states.
After Fox’s acquisition by the Walt Disney Co., Doe and Gonzales became Disney employees, the updated suit states.
Soon after Doe was hired, Gonzales asked prying questions concerning her social and dating life and he also touched her whenever he could while invading her space even after she objected, the updated complaint states.
“Gonzales went out of his way to place himself in plaintiff’s presence even when there was no business need for it,” according to the suit, which further states that Gonzales was physically intimidating to Doe because he was about a foot taller than her.
As time went on, matters escalated and in 2017 for a period of months Gonzales deceived Doe into ingesting illicit drugs and encouraged her to consume excessive amounts of alcohol so that he could sexually abuse her with limited resistance or questioning, the suit states.
“Gonzales used his position of power and blackmail to force her to have sex with him,” according to the amended suit, which further states that Doe believes that she was forced to ingest ecstasy and gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, or GHB, often referred to as the “date rape drug.”
By 2022, many of those in Disney management knew of Gonzales’ alleged misconduct toward Doe, who overheard a Disney chairperson call Gonzales a “pervert,” the revised suit states.
“Management negligently retained, supervised and promoted Gonzales which ultimately caused plaintiff to be assaulted by Gonzales,” who is now retired, the amended complaint states.
Doe was demoted in April 2023 under the management guise of being impacted by ongoing layoffs in various departments, the amended suit alleges. Then, on Nov. 7, 2025, she was terminated, which she alleges was in further retaliation for complaints about Gonzales.