A former assistant to actor Vin Diesel filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles today alleging that the Fast & Furious star sexually battered her while she was working for him in the fall of 2010, during the filming of Fast Five.
Asta Jonasson said her first assignment after being hired by the Fast and Furious star’s company was to travel to Atlanta in September 2010. There, she was tasked with helping Diesel leave a hotel in the early morning hours after entertaining multiple women in a suite, before paparazzi were alerted to his whereabouts.
She says in the lawsuit that Mr Sinclair, 56, physically overpowered her in his hotel suite and “ignored Ms Jonasson’s clear statements of non-consent” as he groped her. “Mere hours” after the incident, the lawsuit says that she was contacted by the actor’s sister Samantha Vincent – who runs his production company One Race Films – and was fired.
“The message was clear. Ms Jonasson was fired for courageously resisting Vin Diesel’s sexual assault, Vin Diesel would be protected, and his sexual assault covered up,” the suit said. The civil suit seeks unspecified damages against Diesel, Vincent, and their companies.
According to the lawsuit, having signed a nondisclosure agreement when she took the One Race position, Jonasson maintained her silence over the ensuing years. The suit says that she was able to file the claims thanks to the Speak Out Act, which prevents the enforcement of nondisclosure agreements in instances of sexual assault and harassment, and California’s AB2777, which temporarily waives statutes of limitations for sexual abuse allegations occurring in 2009 or later.
The suit also says that she was empowered by the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, which inspired her to “reclaim her agency and justice for the suffering she endured at the hands of Vin Diesel and One Race.”
Diesel, who was born Mark Sinclair, is best known for his roles as Dominic Toretto in the Fast & Furious franchise and the voice of Groot in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. He and his sister Samantha are producers on several of the Fast & Furious pictures.
