The Fast & Furious actor-producer is accused of forcing plaintiff Asta Jonasson onto a bed at Atlanta’s St. Regis hotel in 2010, whereupon he groped her legs and breasts and engaged in forced masturbation, according to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on Thursday and obtained by PEOPLE. The lawsuit was initially reported by Vanity Fair.
In the court filing, it states that Jonasson was brought on by Diesel’s production company, One Race Films, to help the actor while his crew was filming Fast Five (2011) in Atlanta. It also claims that Samantha Vincent, the president of One Race and sister of Diesel, fired Jonasson a few hours after the purported incident.
In September 2010, the Guardians of the Galaxy star allegedly “grabbed Ms. Jonasson’s wrists, one with each of his hands, and pulled her onto the bed” of his hotel suite.
After that, the lawsuit claims, she went to the front door of the suite, where the actor allegedly pulled her dress up toward her waist and touched her body, rubbing his hands over Ms. Jonasson’s inner thighs and upper legs. The assistant then ran into the bathroom, where the document claimed Diesel verbally resisted and shoved her against the wall while masturbating.
In addition to sexual battery, Jonasson’s lawsuit alleges sex/gender discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress, hostile work environment, wrongful termination, and retaliation. One Race, which Diesel and his sister founded in 1995, is also named as a defendant in this case.
According to the lawsuit, there was another improper event in Atlanta where a supervisor of One Race called Jonasson to his hotel room and made advances toward her.
It also states that during her less than two-week tenure at One Race, Jonasson signed a nondisclosure agreement. According to reports, her work entailed “organizing parties and catering to Vin Diesel’s demands, including staying in close physical proximity to Vin Diesel when he was at parties without his longtime girlfriend with whom he had children because, as he explained, it would provide him with cover if he was photographed with another woman,” it reads.
The Speak Out Act, which prohibits the enforcement of nondisclosure agreements in cases of sexual assault and harassment, and California’s AB2777, which temporarily waives the statute of limitations for allegations of sexual abuse that occurred in 2009 or later, allowed the plaintiff to file the claims.
According to the documents, Jonasson was partly motivated by the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements in Hollywood to “reclaim her agency and justice for the suffering she endured at the hands of Vin Diesel and One Race”.
