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Celebrity spokesperson for BetMGM, Jamie Foxx, is named in a lawsuit filed Wednesday alleging assault.
The woman (identified as "Jane Doe") claims this incident occurred in 2015 at the Catch NYC rooftop lounge. The bar and its owner are also named in the suit.
Variety detailed the allegations found in the suit:
The woman and a friend were seated at a table next to Foxx and Mark Birnbaum, the owner of the bar. At around 1 a.m., the woman’s friend got up and asked Foxx for a photo.
Foxx agreed, and they took several photos. Foxx began complimenting the plaintiff, according to the suit, saying “Wow, you have that super model body” and “You smell so good.” The suit also states that he said she looked like Gabrielle Union.
She alleges that he then took her by the arm and led her to a more secluded part of the rooftop, where he groped her breasts underneath her crop top. The suit states that she was caught off guard and tried to step away, but that Foxx then stuck his hands down her pants and “put his fingers on and in Plaintiff’s vagina and anus.”
The lawsuit was filed under the New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which went into effect in late November 2022 and allows adult survivors of sexual abuse to sue their abusers in New York – even if the statute of limitations on their claims had expired.
The law has given adult survivors of sexual assault one year to file lawsuits against their perpetrators and is set to expire on Friday.
Foxx has yet to respond to the allegations detailed in the suit.
It remains to be seen what action, if any, BetMGM will take in regard to using Foxx as their representative.
The actor was hospitalized and placed in rehabilitation last spring for an undisclosed condition. BetMGM continued to run ads featuring Foxx during that time frame, even with reports suggesting he might not make it.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
