Alexandra Waterbury Lawsuit Agains Tf Nycb
New York Metropolis Ballet Dropped From a Woman's Photo-Sharing Lawsuit
The accommodate cited the company, its school and dancers in a instance that described "a fraternity-like atmosphere" at the ballet. Her ex-young man remains a defendant.
Two years after a photo-sharing scandal involving explicit images rocked New York Urban center Ballet, a judge has dismissed most of the legal claims made by the woman whose lawsuit started it all.
The woman, Alexandra Waterbury, had sued her ex-fellow, Hunt Finlay, maxim that he had sent sexually explicit photos and short videos of her, taken without her noesis, to others affiliated with the company. Because Mr. Finlay had been a principal dancer at Metropolis Ballet, Ms. Waterbury also sued the visitor, too equally its affiliated academy, the School of American Ballet, which she had attended from 2013 to 2016.
Too listed every bit defendants in the lawsuit were two other principal dancers, Amar Ramasar and Zachary Catazaro, who were not defendant of sharing sexually explicit images of Ms. Waterbury only of other women affiliated with the company or school.
Prototype
In a decision released belatedly Friday dark, Judge James Edward d'Auguste, of the State Supreme Courtroom in Manhattan, dismissed all claims against the ballet company and schoolhouse, likewise as those against Mr. Ramasar and Mr. Catazaro. The merely legal merits that survived was ane confronting Mr. Finlay that says he violated a urban center authoritative code prohibiting unlawful disclosure of an intimate image.
"Mr. Finlay's actions, equally alleged, in secretly taking and then disclosing intimate images of Waterbury without her knowledge or consent, are pitiful," Judge d'Auguste wrote, but he dismissed six out of seven of her claims confronting him, including attack and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
A lawyer for Ms. Waterbury, Hashemite kingdom of jordan Yard. Merson, said in a statement that he disagreed with the court'due south interpretation of the law in the determination.
"Ms. Waterbury will continue to fight to protect New Yorkers from going through what she has," he said in the statement. Barring a successful appeal from Ms. Waterbury, the decision means that New York Urban center Ballet, equally well as Mr. Ramasar and Mr. Catazaro, has been removed as defendants from the lawsuit. Ms. Waterbury had blamed the company in her lawsuit for condoning a "fraternity-like temper" that "permeates the Ballet and its dancers, and emboldens them to disregard the police force and violate the basic rights of women."
Simply because Ms. Waterbury was never a student or employee of City Ballet — and she was non a student at the school at the fourth dimension of the "unconsented-to recordings" or text exchanges — the approximate found that the company did not shirk responsibility and dismissed claims of negligence against information technology. The judge besides said the plaintiff did not bring forward specific allegations that the company had reason to know its employees had a propensity for such behavior, rejecting Ms. Waterbury'due south claims of negligent hiring and retention at City Ballet.
A spokesman for the company, Rob Daniels, said in a statement that City Ballet was "pleased that the court recognized that the company bears no responsibility in this thing."
In 2018, every bit a upshot of the photograph-sharing scandal, City Ballet fired both Mr. Ramasar and Mr. Catazaro. Merely the company was later ordered past an arbitrator to reverse the terminations; Mr. Ramasar returned as a chief dancer, but Mr. Catazaro decided not to rejoin the company.
The photo-sharing scandal, along with the retirement of Peter Martins, the visitor'southward longtime leader, among an investigation into reports of concrete and emotional abuse (reports that he denied), helped spark a reassessment of the civilisation at Metropolis Ballet. Some women in the company fabricated it articulate to management that they would not be comfy dancing with the men who were involved in the text exchanges, but in bound 2019, Mr. Ramasar was back onstage.
The claims against Mr. Ramasar resurfaced this yr with the opening of "W Side Story" on Broadway, in which he played Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks. A grouping of protesters showed up outside the theater for several nights, demanding that Mr. Ramasar be fired from the show because of the sexual misconduct allegations against him. Mr. Ramasar's girlfriend, Alexa Maxwell, a member of the corps de ballet at City Ballet who was the subject field of the sexually explicit photos Mr. Ramasar had shared, defended his office in the show and said she had forgiven him.
Image
In a statement sent through his lawyer, Mr. Ramasar, who as well received explicit photos of Ms. Waterbury, said that he was grateful for the dismissal of Ms. Waterbury's claims confronting him and that he was "looking forward to the future, having grown and learned from the past."
Another defendant who was effectively dropped from the case by the judge'southward decision was Jared Longhitano, who is described in Ms. Waterbury's lawsuit as a junior lath member at City Ballet. Her lawsuit said that Mr. Longhitano had participated in the substitution of "lewd, degrading and demeaning text messages almost ballet dancers," and that he in one case texted Mr. Finlay, "I bet we could tie some of them upward and abuse them like farm animals." The judge dismissed Ms. Waterbury'southward merits of negligence against him.
Mr. Longhitano said in a cursory phone interview that he was "satisfied with the decision and was looking forrard to moving on."
The surviving claim against Mr. Finlay, who resigned from the company before Ms. Waterbury filed her lawsuit, relates to a metropolis law that made it illegal for someone to distribute an "intimate epitome" of a person without consent, when the intent is to cause "economic, physical or substantial emotional harm" if those images are spread.
Lawyers for Mr. Finlay, Matthew Cursory and Ira Kleiman, said in a argument that the remaining claim was "based on a relatively new and untested New York City statute" and that Mr. Finlay did non violate it because he lacked the required intent.
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/28/arts/dance/new-york-city-ballet-lawsuit.html