The estate of a late French model scout was sued Tuesday by a woman who alleges his employees sexually abused her after imprisoning her at a home the scout owned.
Jean-Luc Brunel died in February 2022 in his mid-70s after hanging himself in a French prison. He gained attention while heading Karin Models and he was a former associate and business partner of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, according to media reports.
According to the plaintiff’s Los Angeles Superior Court, some of the young women whom Brunel’s employees sought out to work as models were drugged, falsely imprisoned and sexually abused. The plaintiff alleges she was sexually abused in Los Angeles and Canada.
The suit describes one alleged instance of abuse that occurred when the woman, who was already modeling in New York, was solicited by Brunel’s employees, who drove her to a Canada home that Brunel’s workers said he owned, the suit states. She could not leave voluntarily and she was subjected to numerous attempts of offensive touching as the men tried unsuccessfully to arouse her by providing the plaintiff with drugs that she would not ingest, the suit states.
After a few days of being falsely imprisoned at the home, she escaped through a window and solicited a ride back to New York, according to the suit, which does not state the date of the alleged mistreatments.
The plaintiff, who was 19 at the time of the alleged abuses, fears embarrassment and further psychological damage if her identity as a victim of such conduct became public, according to the suit, which further states that she seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.