After Pénélope McQuade, it’s Julie Snyder’s turn to defend herself in Gilbert Rozon’s $450,000 defamation lawsuit, accusing him of wanting to publicly humiliate and gag her.
• Read also: Pursued by Rozon, Pénélope McQuade counter-attacks
Like host Penelope McQuade a few days earlier, Ms. Snyder filed a written defense against Rozon in court this week. She categorically refutes the claim of the fallen humor mogul, wanting that he was defamed during a broadcast of The week of the 4 Julies in 2019.
In an unscripted interview with Ms McQuade, she then claimed that Rozon had sexually assaulted her in a Paris apartment in the 1990s.
While she slept in her pajamas, Rozon would have entered her bed, naked, with the aim of raping her. She would have fled on foot, to the Champs-Élysées, to then take refuge with friends.
Gag
Claiming the comments on the show were “legitimate, truthful, nuanced and in the public interest”, Ms Snyder’s lawyers recalled that numerous allegations of sexual misconduct since 2017 had already destroyed Rozon’s reputation.
They also criticize the founder of Just for Laughs for wanting to humiliate Ms. Snyder, by requiring the hosts to make a public statement that “Gilbert Rozon has never sexually assaulted us or inappropriate behavior or conduct”.
“He not only tries to gag them, but also tries to seize their freedom of speech with the aim of forcing them to publicly betray their testimony”, deplore the lawyers, recalling that Ms. Snyder had already expressed herself publicly in this case, without the threat of legal action.