A woman’s long-running sexual assault lawsuit against imprisoned and disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein has been transferred to a new judge in a different courthouse.
Santa Monica Superior Court Judge David W. Swift will now manage plaintiff Hayley Gripp’s case, in which the woman alleges Weinstein attacked her in his suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in 2012 when she was 19 years old. Swift, appointed to the bench by Gov. Gavin Newsom in November 2020, is a former entertainment lawyer whose clients included Justin Bieber.
The Gripp lawsuit was filed in March 2021 and had been before Judge Lisa R. Jaskol in the downtown Spring Street courthouse until it was moved this week in a routine transfer by a supervising judge.
A stay on the Gripp case as well as other lawsuits filed against the 73-year-old Weinstein remains in effect pending the outcome of his appeal to his Los Angeles criminal case conviction. In February 2023, Weinstein was sentenced in a Los Angeles courtroom to an additional 16 years in prison for raping and sexually assaulting an Italian model and actor in 2013.
Gripp, a model and aspiring actress, was allegedly lured to Weinstein hotel room in November 2012 by a female associate of the producer under the pretense of providing the plaintiff with new career opportunities. However, once alone with Gripp, Weinstein violently sexually assaulted and attempted to rape Gripp, who fought back and managed to escape after causing a significant injury to Weinstein’s scrotum with one of her fingernails, the suit states.
Prior to convincing Gripp to see Weinstein, the producer’s associate coerced her to drink an alcoholic beverage, guarded the door during the attack and threatened to ruin Gripp’s life if she reported the sexual assault, the suit alleges.