The allegations against former Saturday Night Live star Horatio Sanz took another turn on Friday, with reports that several of his former castmates, including Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, and Seth Meyers witnessed the victim being sexually assaulted at SNL afterparties.
Sanz was first accused of grooming and sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl in 2002 last August, when the anonymous victim filed a lawsuit against the 53-year-old comedian, NBCUniversal, and SNL Studios alleging that the both NBC and SNL “permitted and enabled” Sanz to groom and abuse her when she was underage. The victim claims that she first met Sanz online when she was just 14-years-old, when she started posting on SNL websites, message boards, and chat rooms.
Now, The Daily Beast has learned that the victim filed a new affidavit on Wednesday alleging that not only were Sanz’s castmates present during the abuse, but actually witnessed it and were “within direct eyesight.” (Previously, it surfaced that some of Sanz’s colleagues were aware of the abuse, but the only castmate named was Jimmy Fallon, who the victim says shared an office with Sanz and gave her advice about college and taking the SATs.)
The victim, who is going by Jane Doe due to her age at the time of her alleged assaults, says that she gained entry to SNL afterparties on at least a dozen separate incidents. However, the “most explosive” allegations stem from a May 2002 afterparty — the second of the night, apparently — when Doe says that she and the comedian were “seated on a couch in the middle of the room facing the entrance.”
“’Both at these parties and afterwards, Sanz kissed me, groped my breasts and buttocks and digitally penetrated my genitals,’ Doe writes. ‘He was also rubbing my vagina over [the] top of my clothes.’”
The victim also noted the reactions of the female cast members who allegedly witnessed the abuse, and the contrast between Fey, Dratch, and Ana Gasteyer.
“Doe’s affidavit states that she and Ana Gasteyer made direct eye contact while Sanz groped her, at which point, ‘Gasteyer’s jaw dropped, her arms shook and she became visibly startled.’”
“’Next to Gasteyer, I saw Fey and Dratch looking at us and laughing,’ Doe continues. ‘When I looked at Fey and Dratch, who were excitedly giggling and talking with their hands over their mouths while looking directly at me and Sanz, they were startled and positioned themselves behind other people.’”
In addition to Gasteyer, Doe claims that Maya Rudolph also appeared disgusted.
“Also present, the affidavit claims, were Seth Meyers and Maya Rudolph—who allegedly also stood ‘directly in front’ of Sanz and Doe, ‘facing us, and Rudolph looked grossed out.’
When Doe expressed her discomfort to Sanz, the affidavit claims, ‘He dismissed my shock and embarrassment, telling me to keep going with him despite everyone gawking at us.’
‘I made repeated comments that I wanted to leave,’ she writes. ‘I was obviously uncomfortable with the situation.’”
Earlier this year, NBC denied liability for the alleged abuse since it would have occurred “after hours” when Sanz “was not performing his job.” A lawyer for the comedian likewise called the allegations “categorically false.”
“However often she repeats her ludicrous allegations or tries to rope in other high-profile names to generate media attention, they will always be false,” said Andrew Brettler, Sanz’s attorney, at the time of the filing last year.