Vin Diesel Wins Dismissal of Former Assistant’s Sexual Battery Lawsuit

A judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit that accused Vin Diesel of sexually assaulting his assistant in 2010 on grounds that California law does not apply in Georgia.

The assistant, Asta Jonasson, sued Diesel in Los Angeles Superior Court in 2023, alleging that he had pinned her against a wall and masturbated while he was in Atlanta for the filming of “Fast Five,” the fifth “Fast & Furious” movie.

According to the complaint, Diesel had brought Jonasson to his hotel suite and forced her onto the bed. She protested and tried to get away, but he pushed her against the wall, tried to pull down her underwear, and then forced her to touch his erect penis, the suit alleged.

She also alleged that, hours later, Diesel’s sister called her and fired her. She had worked for Diesel for nine days.

The judge, Daniel M. Crowley, previously dismissed four of Jonasson’s 10 claims, citing the statute of limitations. In his ruling on Wednesday, he dismissed the remaining six claims due to lack of jurisdiction.

“It is undisputed that the alleged sexual assault took place in Atlanta, Ga.,” the judge wrote, adding that the claim “fails as a matter of law because California statutes are presumed not to have extraterritorial effect unless the Legislature expressly states otherwise in adopting the statute.”

Jonasson’s entire suit would ordinarily have been beyond the statute of limitations. But in 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act, which revived certain sexual assault cases dating back to 2009.

The judge ruled that nothing in the law indicates that it applies outside the state of California.

Diesel’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, denied the allegations when the case was first filed.

“Let me be very clear: Vin Diesel categorically denies this claim in its entirety,” he said at the time. “There is clear evidence which completely refutes these outlandish allegations.”