New court documents filed in the legal battle between Terry Crews and agent Adam Venit outline the reasoning behind Venit’s defense.
Venit, a longtime agent at William Morris Endeavors and powerful force in Hollywood, claims that his conduct against Crews wasn’t at all sexual, according to court documents acquired by TMZ. Furthermore, he claims that Crews can’t possibly win his lawsuit because he suffered no injuries as a result of Venit’s actions.
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The whole case began in October of 2017, at the start of the Me Too movement. Crews shared his story on Twitter, saying that the revelations about Harvey Weinstein were giving him PTSD because “this kind of thing happened” to him.
He then explained in a series of tweets how he had been at a party full of influential Hollywood figures, when a powerful agent had approached him and groped his genitals.
“My wife n I were at a Hollywood function last year n a high level Hollywood executive came over 2 me and groped my privates,” he wrote.
“Jumping back I said ‘What are you doing?!’” Crews continued. “My wife saw everything, [and] we looked at him like he was crazy. He just grinned like a jerk.”
Crews also felt that, if he had retaliated, the consequences would have fallen on him, not his assailant. He felt powerless.
“I was going to kick his ass right then— but I thought twice about how the whole thing would appear,” he wrote. “‘240 lbs. Black Man stomps out Hollywood Honcho’ would be the headline the next day. Only I probably wouldn’t have been able to read it because I WOULD HAVE BEEN IN JAIL,” he wrote. “So we left.”
It later became known that the agent that Crews was accusing was Venit.
Venit was temporarily suspended from WME, an agency which still represents many powerful figures in the entertainment industry. Venit returned to work with a slight demotion, at which point the LAPD’s investigation and Crews’ lawsuit were underway.
The agent has made few public statements about the case. His suspension rocked the agency, and Crews’ fans and supporters have become a force to be reckoned with online.
Now, the release of Venit’s defense shows how he views the incident at last. Crews tweeted the article, retweeting a fan who pointed out the flawed logic of Venit’s argument.
I’m just gonna leave this right here https://t.co/PQuRaRSQvw
— terrycrews (@terrycrews) February 3, 2018
wait, so he denies groping you, then goes on to say what he was accused of, the groping was not sexual and in doing so admitting he groped you? pic.twitter.com/DKsL6WBbhc
— BUY/Stream CupcakKe’s “Ephorize” NOW! (@SpikeGhost) February 3, 2018
He then told his followers he was being pressured to drop the lawsuit, with producers threatening to cause “problems” with his role in Expendables 4 if he didn’t.