Another day, another high profile sexual assault allegation – and this time around, it’s The Fast and The Furious director, Rob Cohen.
According to a report published by Huffington Post over the weekend, Cohen allegedly sexually assaulted a 28-year-old Jane Doe in 2015 while she was unconscious. The assault allegedly occurred when he invited her to a business meeting in NYC to discuss collaborating on a TV pilot.
Credit: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage
HuffPost wrote that “by the night’s end, Jane said she found herself regaining consciousness in Cohen’s hotel room, naked, while the director sexually assaulted her. She jolted out of bed and threw up.”
The publication also reviewed medical records that show Jane sought treatment for sexual assault after meeting with Cohen.
Since the allegations were made public, Cohen and his lawyer have vehemently denied all wrongdoing. In a statement to Deadline, the director said, “I have never assaulted, raped, drugged or molested anyone.”
Cohen’s lawyer Martin Singer told HuffPost in a 13-page letter, “the proposed story is an outrageous defamatory hit piece, making extraordinarily offensive assertions that my client engaged in heinous sexual misconduct, criminal wrongdoing, and other inappropriate behaviour, which are vehemently disputed and denied by my client.”
It’s not the first time Cohen has faced similar allegations. Earlier this year, the filmmaker was accused of molesting his daughter Valkyrie Weather when she was a child. Weather, who is transgender, also claimed her father had taken her to visit sex workers while filming overseas when she was a child and still presented as a boy.
Cohen called his daughter’s allegations “categorically untrue.”
Rob Cohen is best known for directing action films The Fast and the Furious, xXx and fantasy films including Dragonheart and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
Credit: Tony Barson Archive/WireImage
Only time will tell what happens for Cohen, but one thing is clear and that is that sexual abuse is a deep rooted issue in Hollywood – how many more allegations will surface until the offenders realise that Time’s Up?
If you, or anyone you know is a victim of sexual assault, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or 1800 RESPECT for support services.