Woman awarded $900 million in damages for alleged sexual abuse and emotional distress

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A jury unanimously awarded a staggering $900 million to a woman who worked for a Beverly Hills businessman whom she accused of sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The Los Angeles Superior Court panel issued its rulings Monday in the case brought by plaintiff Jane Doe against Alki David. Doe was employed by David from February 2016 to April 2019 at David's companies, including Filmon TV in Beverly Hills, Hologram USA Inc., and SwissX Labs.

The verdicts included $100 million in compensatory damages and $800 million in punitive damages and could be one of the largest such awards in history, according to Doe's lawyers.

Previous juries have awarded more than $80 million against David for similar allegations. David's liability for rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment and retaliation in the case filed in September 2020 had already been established and the jury was impaneled to determine damages, according to Doe's attorneys.

The trial marked the fifth jury award against David and his companies in the past five years alleging sexual assault in the workplace. Doe's lawyers said evidence in her case showed she was sexually assaulted while David was in the middle of another sexual assault trial in April 2019.

An attempt to reach David's lawyer, who is in Greece, was not immediately successful Tuesday.

David is the heir to the Coca-Cola bottling company fortune.

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