Horatio Sanz accuser moves to add Jimmy Fallon, Tracy Morgan, and Lorne Michaels to sexual assault lawsuit

The woman who accused Horatio Sanz of sexual assault, known only as Jane Doe, has filed a motion to add Jimmy Fallon, Tracy Morgan, and Lorne Michaels to her lawsuit, according to Deadline. The filing argues that the trio enabled Sanz in his grooming and assault of Doe when she was only a teenager.

Doe was originally able to file her 2021 lawsuit against Sanz–which also listed NBCUniversal as a defendant–due to the New York’s Child Victims Act “lookback window,” which allowed her to take legal action regarding the assault that took place in the early 2000s. This new filing takes advantage of a similar law, the lookback window for expired civil claims of gender violence that is part of New York City’s Gender Motivated Violence Act. Per Deadline, Doe’s lawyers say these claims will be revived when the window opens on March 1, 2023.

Fallon was previously implicated in the suit as joining Sanz in originally reaching out to Doe via email when she was 15 years old. Speaking with The Daily Beast earlier this year, she recalled hanging out with Fallon at Saturday Night Live afterparties and speaking with him about her upcoming SATs. She also recalled being introduced to Michaels at an afterparty, where he gave her advice on beginning a writing career. Morgan, meanwhile, is identified in the new filing as having rented the space for the “after-after party” where “sex workers were part of the entertainment” and where Sanz allegedly assaulted the 17-year-old Doe in full view of onlookers. (Doe previously named SNL alums Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Seth Meyers, Ana Gasteyer, and Maya Rudolph as witnesses to the assault, per The Daily Beast.)

“Sanz and his enablers lured Jane into their celebrity world and made her feel like a cool kid for drinking and partying with a bunch of famous grown-ups. Instead, they destroyed her life,” said Doe’s attorney Susan Crumiller in a statement (via Deadline). “Jane has spent the past two decades struggling with the repercussions of what they did to her; now it’s their turn. We look forward to holding NBC, Sanz, and everyone else who enabled this disgusting behavior accountable when the GMVA lookback window opens in March.”

NBCUniversal had previously filed to dismiss the suit on the grounds that the company was not responsible for Sanz’s conduct after hours. The dismissal was negated when Crumiller notified the court of her intention to amend the complaint, per Variety. In a new statement, an NBC spokesperson said, “Regardless of Jane Doe’s changing narratives, NBC intends to renew its motion to dismiss.”

In 2021, Sanz’s attorney released a statement calling Doe’s claims “categorically false.” Her original suit contains messages from the comedian as recently as 2019 in which he allegedly told her “If you want to metoo me you have every right.” Doe’s account of her experience for The Daily Beast–which includes descriptions of grooming and its repercussions on her mental health–is well worth reading, if you haven’t done so already.