Judge dismisses defendant Danny Elfman's sexual assault lawsuit

A Los Angeles A US judge has dismissed a sexual assault lawsuit filed by an anonymous woman who claims that composer and musician Danny Elfman sexually abused her between 1997 and 2002, when she was in her twenties and he was twice her age.

In a ruling signed Wednesday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lisa K. Sepe-Wiesenfeld granted Elfman's motion for summary judgment, saying plaintiff Jane Doe “should get nothing out of this lawsuit.” In an accompanying record order, the judge found that Jane Doe was not entitled to a reinstatement of her decades-old claims because her lawsuit “failed” to prove the elements of sexual abuse required by the reinstatement statute she cited.

In her lawsuit, the woman claimed that Elfman frequently exposed himself to her and told her he masturbated next to her while she slept and could not consent to the act. She and her attorneys argued they needed to take Elfman's statement to prove the necessary elements of their case. Elfman signed a statement last May declaring that he “never sexually assaulted” and “never physically restrained” the plaintiff. [her] or has used physical violence or threatened to use violence against [her].”

In her ruling, the judge found that there was “no trial-ready issue of fact” because Elfman denied any wrongdoing under oath and Jane Doe admitted to being asleep at the time of the alleged assault. “Plaintiff has made only speculative statements that she may have been sexually assaulted,” the judge wrote in her order. “The court must assume that Elfman will testify to the same facts in his deposition as were set forth in his statement. … There is no basis for concluding that additional discovery in the form of Elfman's testimony would help Plaintiff create a trial-ready issue.”

The judge also ruled that the woman's claims of gender-based violence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, sexual harassment and negligence were too old to be pursued. Reacting to the ruling, Jane Doe's lawyer said his client stands by her claims.

“We are disappointed but not shocked that the court has ruled that the law does not allow her case to proceed. It does not change the fact that Jane Doe exposed a serious threat: a respected celebrity who abused his position and power for his harmful pleasure,” Doe's attorney Jeff Anderson said in a statement.

Anderson claimed that his client was asleep at the time of the alleged assault and that “we were unable to handle the case in a way that met the legal requirements for a continuance. That does not change the fact that he manipulated and exploited his position with Jane Doe and at least one other survivor. This is still a testament to Jane Doe's courage in exposing a real danger in the entertainment industry.”

A spokesman for Elfman did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Elfman and his lawyers had previously called Jane Doe's lawsuit “baseless.”

The musician still faces separate lawsuits from Nomi Abadi, a Los Angeles composer who claims Elfman exposed himself and sexually harassed her in 2016 and reached an $830,000 settlement and nondisclosure agreement with her a year later. Abadi filed a breach of contract suit regarding the settlement last year, claiming Elfman missed several payments. The matter was referred to arbitration. In a separate lawsuit, Abadi sued Elfman for defamation in July.