A woman who served as an assistant to Vin Diesel is alleging that the actor and star of the Fast and Furious movie series sexually assaulted her in 2010. The allegations, as reported by Vanity Fair, come from a suit filed by Asta Jonasson in Los Angeles. In the suit, Jonasson claims that when she was fresh out of film school, she was hired by Diesel’s company One Race for a job with some unusual responsibilities.
“Asta Jonasson states that she was hired by Diesel’s company, One Race, to work for the actor on location in Atlanta, where Fast Five was in production. The suit describes Jonasson as a recent film-school-program graduate at the time, whose job responsibilities included organizing parties, accompanying Diesel to parties, and ensuring that she was in close physical proximity to him in case photographs were taken of him with women when he attended events without his longtime girlfriend.”
Everything changed one night in September 2010. Please be advised the following contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence.
“The suit alleges that late one night in September 2010, Jonasson was asked to wait in Diesel’s suite at the St. Regis hotel while he entertained hostesses he had brought back from a club. Once the other women were gone, the lawsuit claims, Diesel “grabbed Ms. Jonasson’s wrists, one with each of his hands, and pulled her onto the bed.” She asked him to stop, escaped his grasp, and waited by the front door of the suite for him to leave.
Instead, the lawsuit says, he again approached Jonasson and began to grope her breasts and kiss her chest, despite her pleas to stop. “Ms. Jonasson was afraid to more forcibly refuse her supervisor, knowing that getting him out of that room was both crucial to her personal safety and job security,” the suit continues. “But this hope died when Vin Diesel dropped to his knees, pushed Ms. Jonasson’s dress up toward her waist, and molested her body, running his hands over Ms. Jonasson’s upper legs, including her inner thighs.”
Jonasson says that she attempted to run but Diesel pinned her and forced her to touch his genitals, then masturbated. Hours after the assault, she claims that was terminated from her position by Diesel’s sister.
She also claims a supervisor for One Race called her to his room and took his shirt off and beckoned for her to join him in bed. She’s now suing over allegations of discrimination based on gender, emotional distress, and creating a hostile work environment among other things.
Vanity Fair says reps for Diesel didn’t respond to the publications requests for a comment on the allegations.