A Manhattan civil jury has found that Robert De Niro’s production company discriminated and retaliated against his former assistant, Graham Chase Robinson, and has ordered the company to pay her $1.2 million in damages.
The verdict ends a two-week-long case that’s aired the dirty laundry of the “Taxi Driver” actor‘s company and his employees.
Jurors reached the verdict after around five hours of deliberations on Thursday.
Robert De Niro’s former assistant, was found not liable of counterchanges alleging she misused the company pocketbook, taking millions in frequent-flier miles and company credit card swipes for her own personal use.
The jury had the task of parsing through the dueling misconduct claims — De Niro’s initial suit and Robinson’s countersuit — to come up with the verdict.
The movie star claims Robinson misused funds from his company Canal Productions, stealing millions of frequent-flier miles before she quit in 2019.
De Niro’s case against her claims she racked up thousands of dollars worth of personal expenses on the company card, booked flights using company miles and watched hours upon hours of Netflix while on the clock. By 2019, when she resigned, she was making $300,000 per year.
The lawsuit alleges “suspicions” about Robinson’s behavior arose starting in early 2019.
The jury started delivering at around 11:15 a.m. on Thursday, after hearing the charges and receiving instructions from Judge Lewis Liman.
The two-week-long courtroom faceoff has featured hours of juicy office gossip testimony from employees of Canal Productions. Text threads and emails showed drama and back-stabbing that played out in the Manhattan office of Canal Productions, a firm that handles De Niro’s personal affairs, separately from his other companies.
Robinson’s suit, filed after De Niro’s was filed in state court, was seeking to be awarded millions in damages for emotional distress, reputational harm and gender discrimination she says she suffered while on the star’s payroll.
Her accusations include De Niro making lewd jokes, asking for back scratches and asking her to deliver a martini from Nobu, a restaurant chain De Niro owns.
De Niro admitted last week that he could have called Robinson “a f—ing spoiled brat” while she worked for him — while he claims she misused the company credit card and used millions of his frequent-flier miles for personal trips.
“I berated her,” De Niro said. “I wasn’t abusive, I was annoyed.”
Robinson, 41, started working for De Niro in 2008 as a personal assistant. She was promoted to director of production of his company, Canal Productions in 2011 and vice president of production and finance in 2017.
Robinson’s $12 million gender discrimination and retaliation claim alleges that the Taxi Driver star urinated during phone calls with her, would make her scratch his back and used derogatory terms around her, among other allegations. De Niro has denied the allegations of misconduct.
Tiffany Chen, De Niro’s girlfriend, has been a key figure in the trial, with Chen, who had a baby with De Niro this past April, claiming Robinson claims Chen, Robinson was territorial over the star and that Robinson wanted to be her wife.
Robinson’s lawsuit claims that De Niro’s company’s suit was filed in retaliation and an attempt to stop her from filing lawsuits against the actor and his company.
RobeA Manhattan civil jury has found that Robert De Niro’s production company discriminated and retaliated against his former assistant, Graham Chase Robinson, and has ordered the company to pay her $1.2 million in damages.
De Niro reappeared in court Wednesday for the case’s closing statements — the first time he’s been in court since his testimony at the start of the case.
“This is a civil rights trial,” Robinson’s attorney Brent Hannafan said during closing statements on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. “Your verdict will have meaning when you return it, again, not just for Ms. Robinson, but for all civil rights litigants.”
Hannafan asked the jury to award the former assistant damages in the ballpark of at least seven figures.
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