By LARRY NEUMEISTER (Associated Press)
NEW YORK (AP) — Robert De Niro’s former prime govt assistant stated she discovered it “creepy” when the actor insisted she scratch his again, an instance of conduct she discovered controlling and abusive earlier than she stop her job in 2019, she testified Friday at a New York civil trial.
In a full day of testimony, Graham Chase Robinson grew to become emotional a number of instances as she claimed that the trauma she endured earlier than she stop working for De Niro in 2019 after 11 years has left her jobless and depressed.
“I was having an emotional and mental breakdown. I wasn’t eating. I wasn’t sleeping. Couldn’t run. I was overwhelmed,” she informed jurors in Manhattan federal court docket. “I felt like I hit rock bottom.”
She stated she suffers from anxiousness and melancholy and hasn’t labored in 4 years regardless of making use of for 638 jobs.
“I don’t have a social life,” she stated. “I’m so humiliated and embarrassed and feel so judged. I feel so damaged in a way. … I lost my life. Lost my career. Lost my financial independence. I lost everything.”
Robinson, 41, is looking for $12 million in damages from De Niro, 80, for gender discrimination and retaliation. De Niro has requested a jury to award him $6 million on breach of loyalty and fiduciary obligation grounds.
Robinson stated the back-scratching had occurred a number of instances over time till she supplied a light protest as soon as, suggesting to De Niro that there was a tool he may use as an alternative.
“I like the way that you do it,” she stated De Niro informed her.
She described the remark as “creepy” and “disgusting.”
During testimony earlier within the week, De Niro scoffed on the back-scratching declare and different assertions, saying he at all times handled Robinson with respect and by no means with “disrespect or lewdness.”
He additionally claimed he by no means yelled at her simply earlier than he did in court docket, shouting: “Shame on you, Chase Robinson!” He rapidly apologized for the outburst.
Robinson stated a part of her duties that required her to be accessible across the clock included serving to De Niro navigate an advanced love life that at one level concerned a spouse, an ex-girlfriend and a brand new girlfriend that he didn’t need the world to but find out about.
Robinson portrayed De Niro in her testimony as sexist along with his language towards feminine workers and discriminatory in how he paid them.
Her testimony was undercut on cross-examination when a lawyer for De Niro confronted her with the truth that the actor’s highest-paid worker was a lady and {that a} man who labored for one in every of De Niro’s corporations, Canal Productions, identical to Robinson, was paid lower than a 3rd of the $300,000 wage she secured earlier than she stop.
Robinson testified about a number of situations when she claimed De Niro, who gained fame and two Oscars over the previous 5 a long time in movies like “Raging Bull,” “The Deer Hunter” and the brand new Martin Scorsese movie “Killers of the Flower Moon,” erupted angrily at her, generally utilizing profanity.
Around Christmas of 2017, Robinson stated, an inebriated De Niro known as her offended one night as a result of he couldn’t discover some presents that had been despatched to him from the workplace for the vacation.
“He was screaming about not being able to find some of the presents,” Robinson stated. “He was cursing left and right.”
He then known as her an expletive and hung up, she stated.
She stated she discovered it “incredibly hurtful … especially when you’re just trying to do your job.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”