The case of Robert De Niro, who faced accusations ranging from mobbing to gender discrimination by his former assistant, has been finalized. The court jury awarded Robert De Niro's former personal assistant over 1.2 million dollars in damages. The court found that De Niro was responsible for exposing his assistant to a toxic work environment.
Graham Chase Robinson, 41, had accused De Niro of workplace harassment and claimed she was subjected to sexually inappropriate behavior during her employment from 2008 until her resignation in 2019.
While the jury found that De Niro was not personally responsible for the abuse, it said his company, Canal Productions, engaged in sex discrimination and retaliation against his former assistant Graham Chase Robinson and must pay him two payments totaling $632,142.
De Niro, 80, who was present for three days and took the witness stand for two days during the two-week trial, was not in the courtroom when the verdict was read in the case brought by Robinson, his former assistant after he resigned in April 2019. Robinson celebrated the verdict by hugging his lawyers.
"SHAME ON YOU!"
During the hearings attended by De Niro, the famous actor shouted "Shame on you!" to his former assistant. During the trial, Robinson testified that De Niro and his girlfriend Tiffany Chen had conspired against him to turn the job he once loved into a nightmare. When De Niro took the witness stand, he said that Robinson raised his salary from $100,000 to $300,000 a year and promoted him to vice president of production and finance at his request, although his responsibilities remained largely the same.
When he left, De Niro claimed that Robinson had stolen about $85,000 in airline miles from him, betrayed his trust and violated his unwritten rules to use common sense and always do the right thing.
"I LOST EVERYTHING"
Robinson said he quit his job during an emotional and mental breakdown that overwhelmed him and left him feeling like he had hit rock bottom, and that he had not worked for four years despite applying for 638 jobs.
"I have no social life. I'm very humiliated, I'm ashamed and I feel very judged," the former assistant said in court, adding, "In a way, I feel so damaged... I've lost my life, I've lost my career, I've lost my financial independence, I've lost everything."
