SNL: Tina Fey and Seth Meyers among cast members who allegedly witnessed Horatio Sanz assault underage fan
The then 17-year-old fan has named several former cast members who were at a 2002 afterparty where Sanz allegedly sexually assaulted her
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Your support makes all the difference.Tina Fey and Seth Meyers are among several Saturday Night Live stars named as alleged witnesses to an alleged assault of an underage fan, during a 2002 cast afterparty.
In a 2021 lawsuit filed against former SNL star Horatio Sanz, an unidentified woman going under “Jane Doe” accused Sanz of grooming her and sexually assaulting her at an afterparty. She was 17 at the time. NBCUniversal and SNL Studios are also named as defendants.
In a new affidavit, Doe has claimed that Fey and Meyers, along with Rachel Dratch, Ana Gasteyer, and Maya Rudolph, were among the partygoers within direct eyesight of herself and Sanz as he groped her.
“Both at these parties and afterwards, Sanz kissed me, groped my breasts and buttocks and digitally penetrated my genitals,” Doe writes in the affidavit. “He was also rubbing my vagina over [the] top of my clothes.”
Further, the affidavit states that Gasteyer made direct eye contact with Doe while Sanz groped her: “Gasteyer’s jaw dropped, her arms shook and she became visibly startled.”
Doe adds: “Next to Gasteyer, I saw Fey and Dratch looking at us and laughing.
“When I looked at Fey and Dratch, who were excitedly giggling and talking with their hands over their mouths while looking directly at me and Sanz, they were startled and positioned themselves behind other people.”
In the affidavit, Doe claims that Meyers stood with Rudolph “directly in front” of Sanz and Doe, “facing us, and Rudolph looked grossed out”.
She alleges that when she expressed her discomfort to Sanz, “he dismissed my shock and embarrassment, telling me to keep going with him despite everyone gawking at us”.
“I made repeated comments that I wanted to leave,” Doe writes. “I was obviously uncomfortable with the situation.”
At the time of the initial lawsuit, Sanz’s lawyer Andrew Brettler described the claims as “categorically false” and “ludicrous”.
“Before filing this lawsuit anonymously, she demanded $7.5m in exchange for her silence,” he claimed, in a statement to TMZ. “We, of course, refused and will vigorously contest these totally meritless claims.”
“However often she repeats her ludicrous allegations or tries to rope in other high-profile names to generate media attention, they will always be false.”
The Independent has contacted representatives for Meyers, Fey, Gasteyer, Dratch, and Rudolph for comment. An NBC spokesperson told The Independent they believe the plaintiff’s claims against NBC are meritless and have filed a motion to dismiss.
If you have been raped or sexually assaulted, you can contact your nearest Rape Crisis organisation for specialist, independent and confidential support. For more information, visit their website here.