The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has decided not to prosecute director James Toback, finding that the allegations fall outside the statute of limitations.
The D.A.’s Hollywood sex crimes task force reviewed five cases against the director, dating back as far as 1978. Two of the cases were investigated by the LAPD, while three came from the Beverly Hills Police Department.
In three cases, women reported that Toback had rubbed up against them and masturbated. One woman told Beverly Hills police that she agreed to go to a movie screening at a private home with Toback in 2008. Once there, he allegedly told her to masturbate and she complied out of fear. He was sitting in a chair, and then came over to where she was sitting and, while fully clothed, rubbed his groin against her leg until he ejaculated, according to a report. The D.A.’s office found that Toback may have committed sexual battery, but that the one-year statute of limitations had expired.
In another case, a woman told Beverly Hills detectives that she met Toback at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 1993. He asked her to have sex, and she refused. While she was seated in a chair, he rubbed up against her leg while fully clothed, and ejaculated, according to the report. He did this four times over the course of several hours, and also ejaculated once while rubbing against her socked foot, the report states. Again, prosecutors determined that Toback may have committed sexual battery, but that the statute of limitations had expired.
A third woman reported a similar incident to Beverly Hills police, which had allegedly occurred in 2008. The woman stopped cooperating with detectives and did not agree to an interview with prosecutors, according to the report. The office held that the case appeared to fall outside the statute of limitations, but was open to reconsideration if the victim agreed to an interview.
The other two cases were investigated by the LAPD, and were significantly older. In the first, a woman told detectives that she had dinner with Toback in 1978. Afterward, she said he pushed her up against a wall and asked to have sex. She refused, and while he drove home, he exposed himself, she said. Another woman told detectives that Toback groped her while trying to get her to have sex with him in 1980. She refused. Both cases, again, fell outside the statute of limitations.
More than 300 women contacted the Los Angeles Times last fall to report that Toback had groped or harassed them, often in the context of auditions. Toback has denied the allegations.
