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Robert De Niro just lost a court battle against his former personal assistant Graham Chase Robinson.
While De Niro was found not guilty of gender discrimination, his company Canal Productions was found liable for gender discrimination and retaliation.
As a result, Canal Productions must pay 1.26 million in damages to Robinson, who worked for the company for 11 years until 2019.
In a statement, Robinson’s lawyer David Sanford said, “We are delighted that the jury saw what we saw and returned a verdict in Chase Robinson’s favor against Robert De Niro’s company, Canal Productions. Not only did Ms. Robinson win her case against Canal, but the jury completely vindicated Ms. Robinson by finding De Niro’s claims against her to be without merit.”
During the trial, De Niro was accused of being an abusive boss, while Robinson was accused of misusing the company’s money, as well as stealing office property.
During her testimony, Robinson claimed that De Niro would bully her, even calling her a “b*tch” to her face, phone her at any given moment, like at a funeral, and paid her less than his personal trainer, since she was a single woman.
At one point, Robert was unable to control his emotions, shouting in court, “Shame on you, Chase Robinson!”
Robert’s girlfriend Tiffany Chen also took the stand, comparing Robinson to a stalker character in the 1992 movie “Single White Female.” Chen once emailed De Niro about Robinson’s “persistent manner and demented, imaginary intimacy with you.”
Robinson denied any romantic interest in De Niro when she was on the stand.