Yahoo News Leon Black Accused of Raping 16-Year-Old With Down Syndrome
A disturbing new lawsuit accuses billionaire Leon Black of violently raping a 16-year-old girl with autism and a rare form of Down Syndrome at sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s New York mansion in 2002.
On Tuesday, a woman identified as Jane Doe filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court claiming that Epstein instructed her to give his “special friend Leon Black” a sexualized massage, during which he is accused of brutalizing her to the point that she began bleeding.
Because of Doe’s condition, identified in the complaint as mosaic Down Syndrome, her developmental age was about 12 years old and she had “neurological disabilities and health issues.” As a result, the filing states, Doe was “a perfect target” for Epstein and his girlfriend and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
“Epstein and Maxwell seized upon Plaintiff’s developmental disabilities, coupled with her outwardly physical appearance, specifically fair skin, blue eyes and blond hair, for their own deviant sexual predation,” the lawsuit continues. “Disgustingly, Epstein and Maxwell trafficked Ms. Doe to other men in their circle, including Defendant Black.”
The lawsuit includes graphic details of Black’s alleged abuse, as well as allegations of Doe signing up for a cheerleading program only to be groomed and abused by an adult volunteer named “Elizabeth,” who eventually introduced her to Maxwell.
It’s the third sex-abuse claim filed by the Wigdor LLP law firm against Black since 2021. The new complaint also follows revelations in The New York Times that Black agreed to pay the U.S. Virgin Islands $62.5 million in cash to settle claims related to the territory’s investigation into Epstein’s sex ring.
Wigdor first sued Black in 2021 on behalf of Guzel Ganieva, a former model who claimed that Black abused her for years. That defamation suit was dismissed in May of this year by a New York judge who ruled that an NDA that Ganieva inked with Black in 2015 “clearly and unambiguously covers all claims arising out of the parties’ relationship, past or future.”
Aside from Ganieva’s case, an accuser named Cheri Pierson also sued the Apollo Global Management co-founder in November 2022, alleging she was a struggling single mom when Black raped her at Epstein’s mansion in 2002 during a massage. In that pending litigation, Black’s lawyers filed a motion for sanctions against Wigdor, accusing the firm of filing false claims intended to tarnish his “well-earned and sterling reputation.”
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Court records show that Jeanne Christensen, the Wigdor attorney behind the suits, filed a cross-motion for sanctions against Black’s lawyers, too. She argued Black sought “to harm and sully” Pierson’s and Wigdor’s reputations and “provide cover for Black in the press to continue his smear campaign” and “deflect attention from him.”
Susan Estrich, an attorney for Black, called Doe’s lawsuit “frivolous and sanctionable” and referred to Wigdor and its “vendetta” against the mogul.
“Mr. Black has never met this individual,” Estrich said of Doe in a statement. “These vicious and defamatory lies, masquerading as allegations, have been intentionally manufactured by the Wigdor law firm as part of the firm’s vendetta against Mr. Black for vigorously and successfully defending himself over the past two years.
“Wigdor’s prior case against Mr. Black was recently thrown out by the Court and this one will be too,” Estrich added. “These allegations—about an incident that supposedly took place 20 years ago—are totally made up, entirely uncorroborated and, as pleaded, squarely violate the statute of limitations. This sham proceeding will be promptly dismissed and will provide further ammunition for Mr. Black’s pending sanctions motion against the Wigdor firm.”
According to Doe’s complaint, the cheerleading camp volunteer, Elizabeth, paid Doe “extra attention” and persuaded the girl to stay at her home most days a week. After moving in with Elizabeth, Doe was physically and psychologically abused, deprived of food and water, locked in a room for hours, and forced to wear small children’s clothing, the lawsuit says.
Doe says Elizabeth’s male friends, including one in his late 40s, began to sexually groom her and forced her to watch them have intercourse.
In the summer of 2001, the complaint adds, Elizabeth brought Doe to a large home in a Washington, D.C., suburb for an adult “party” that mostly included men. There, Doe allegedly crossed paths with “a woman with dark hair and a British accent” who called her “a beautiful darling girl” who looked like a real-life “doll.”
The complaint says Doe later learned this stranger was Maxwell, who is now serving a 20-year prison sentence for trafficking minors for Epstein.
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Doe was put on a private plane the following week to Palm Beach, the lawsuit alleges, and was transported in a large SUV to Epstein’s mansion. “Maxwell and Epstein began exposing [Doe] to their sexual deviance less than an hour after she first arrived,” the complaint says, adding that they ordered her to sit in a chair outside a bedroom where they were having sex.
“Quickly, Maxwell showed [Doe] how to ‘make Jeffrey happy,’” the filing states. “Maxwell held [her] hand the first time she showed her the way to massage Jeffrey and make him ejaculate through oral sex—both Maxwell and Epstein gave [her] ‘happy claps’ for her brilliant success, the way parents do with five-year-olds.”
Meanwhile, Epstein’s then assistant Sarah Kellen is accused of teaching Doe how to have sex with Epstein.
After that, the lawsuit says, Elizabeth “shipped out” Doe to Palm Beach and the U.S. Virgin Islands to be abused by Epstein and Maxwell. She was delivered to them so frequently that she allegedly skipped multiple days in her junior year of high school and nearly failed.
The filing alleges Epstein would go on to “hand off” Doe to other men in his circle, including Black, at his homes in Florida and the USVI. On two occasions, Doe claims, she stayed with Epstein and Maxwell in New York, where she was brought to the offices of a ballet performance and introduced to a dancer. Doe was also allegedly brought to Maxwell’s Upper East Side townhouse.
Before Doe was sent back home, the lawsuit says, Maxwell, Kellen or someone named “Nadia” would stash an envelope in her bag with money but she wasn’t allowed to open it.
In late spring or summer of 2002, Elizabeth informed Doe she would be heading to New York to meet Black, whom she described as a “very important and special person” to “Jeffrey,” according to the complaint.
After she arrived at Epstein’s townhouse, Doe spotted Black—whom she described as “a huge older man” who is “6’ 4” and about 300 pounds” with a “bulbous nose” and “skin tags and moles”—having a conversation with Epstein. The lawsuit says Doe’s “initial impression of Black was that he looked like an ‘ogre,’ and she felt frightened.”
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Epstein ordered Doe to give Black “the same kind of ‘massage treatment’ that she gives Epstein —meaning that it would involve sexual intercourse and she was expected to strip naked,” the lawsuit alleges.
According to the document, Black then led Doe to an upstairs massage room, gripping her hand “so hard that she thought he might have broken bones.”
Once inside the room, Black allegedly tossed Doe over his shoulder and threw her onto the massage table, knocking the wind out of her. “She tried to scream but Black placed his hand over her mouth and leaned over her while ripping off her shirt and under her skirt pulling her underwear off,” the lawsuit continues.
Doe claims Black called her “demeaning” names during the assault and laughed at her attempts to escape him, asking if she was “feisty.” She also alleges that Black penetrated her forcefully with sex toys. At one point, Doe says his assault was so painful that she kicked him, sending him into a rage where he called her a “whore” and “slut” and threw her to the ground.
After this vicious attack, the lawsuit alleges, Doe “begged Epstein to take her to a doctor because she was in physical agony and was continuing to bleed but he refused, instead telling her that Maxwell would take care of her.”
“Although Epstein trafficked [Doe] to other men, both before and after Black, she was never again taken to NYC,” the complaint says. “The violent and sadistic nature of Black’s rape left an indelible mark on her, both physically and psychologically. [Doe] suffered internal abrasions in her rectum that continue to cause her pain.”
Doe’s lawsuit references a New York City law—the Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act—that provides a two-year lookback window for survivors to pursue claims that would ordinarily be barred under a statute of limitations.
“Today, because of legislative initiatives in NYS granting sexual violence victims the right to file claims previously barred by the statute of limitations, we were able to commence a legal action against Leon Black for harms committed years ago against our client Jane Doe when she was a minor,” Christensen said in a statement. “This is significant for our client and for all sexual assault survivors. It is an honor to represent Jane Doe and we look forward to proceeding to discovery and trial on Jane Doe’s claims.”
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