A lawsuit has been filed against James Dolan, the live events mogul behind Madison Square Garden Entertainment and AMC Networks, in connection with a sex trafficking case involving Harvey Weinstein. The lawsuit alleges that Dolan pressured a former massage therapist into an unwanted sexual relationship and arranged a meeting with Weinstein, during which she claims she was sexually assaulted. Dolan’s lawyer has denied these allegations, stating that the references to Weinstein are intended to incite and appear to be copied from previous cases against Weinstein. The lawyer also characterized the relationship between Dolan and the woman as a “friendship.”
This lawsuit is part of a growing network of legal actions against high-profile Hollywood companies and executives accused of enabling sexual misconduct by Weinstein. CAA and Disney have also faced lawsuits related to their alleged involvement in facilitating meetings with Weinstein that led to sexual assaults. Both CAA and Disney have denied these claims.
In a complaint filed on Tuesday in a California federal court, Kellye Croft alleges that she met Dolan in 2013 when she was 27 years old and working as a massage therapist on tour with the Eagles. Dolan’s band, JD & The Straight Shot, was the opening act through his connections with the classic rock group’s management company, Azoff Music Management.
According to the lawsuit, in 2014, Dolan initiated a sexual relationship with Croft, who claims she was trafficked across the country “under fraudulent pretenses for Dolan to engage in unlawful and unwelcome sex acts with her.” Unlike other tour support staff, she emphasizes that she was housed at the same hotel as Dolan and his band, with all expenses covered by the “JD credit card.”
Croft states that she felt disgusted and terrified by the situation, but the extreme isolation she felt from others on the tour, coupled with Dolan’s attention to her and his assertions that he would take care of her, led her to submit to his advances.
On January 14, Croft alleges that Weinstein, who introduced himself as one of Dolan’s “best friends,” approached her when she was waiting for an elevator at her hotel and offered to connect her with work opportunities. She claims that Weinstein forcefully entered her room after she declined his sexual advances. The suit states that “Weinstein then backed Ms. Croft onto the bed, forced her down, and forced her legs open.”
The allegations in the complaint mirror claims from Weinstein’s Los Angeles criminal trial, where prosecutors argued that Weinstein would often corner his victims in hotel rooms. The complaint also names MSG Entertainment and the Azoff Company, which managed the Eagles and The Straight Shot. Croft alleges that the company, along with other corporate defendants, perpetrated sex trafficking by “transporting her to California for the purposes of providing sexual favors.” According to the complaint, Dolan was a “critically important business partner” after Madison Square Garden invested $175 million in Azoff MSG Entertainment and served as a funding source for the Eagles’ 2014 tour.
