Convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein is suing the U.S. division of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (now part of the Stellantis empire) over a 2019 crash that he claims left him “catastrophically injured and rendered paralyzed.”
The former movie producer and convicted rapist is seeking $5 million in damages from the company in a complaint filed in a New York state court in Manhattan, reports Reuters.
In the suit, he alleges that he attempted to slow down to avoid a deer but the 2017 Jeep Wrangler he was driving “failed to decelerate despite Weinstein’s application of the vehicle’s braking system which resulted in a loss of vehicle control and subsequent rollover of the vehicle.”
Read Also: 2022 Jeep Wrangler 4-Door Tips Over Yet Again In IIHS Crash Test
The suit claims that Weinstein’s injuries were suffered despite the fact that he was wearing his seatbelt at the time of the accident. It also claims that the vehicle, provided to him by FCA in exchange for product placement in movies, had not been kept “in a reasonably safe condition” by the company.
Chrysler parent company Stellantis, meanwhile, told the New York Post that, although it does not comment on pending litigation, it intends “to vigorously defend [its] product against these claims.”
The accident, which took place on August 17, 2019, happened shortly before the former movie executive’s well-publicized trial for sex crimes. The accident and consequent back surgery, claims Weinstein, are what led him to be relegated to a walker during the trial, in which he was convicted of sexual assault and rape and sentenced to 23 years in prison. The producer awaits trial in Los Angeles for charges that he allegedly sexually assaulted five more women between 2004 and 2013.
Weinstein’s lawyer Gary Kavulich claims that the case against FCA is only now being brought forward after negotiations with the automaker to settle it without a lawsuit came to nothing.
