| Bob De Niro
Assistant Chase Robinson Subject to
Psychiatrist Testimony, Got Text Threat
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Nov 7 – Robert De Niro and
Canal Productions were sued in
2019 for gender discrimination
by Graham Chase Robinson, who
had begun working as De Niro's
executive assistant in 2008,
at 25 years old.
She said
she was discriminated against
- then De Niro sued her, and
she sued him.
On March 10, 2020
U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Magistrate Judge Katharine H.
Parker held a
proceeding. Inner City Press
covered it. Inner City
Press had previously checked
in on the case, on January 30,
2020, here.
"in SDNY, Robert
De Niro is being sued by
former employee Graham Chase
Robinson for gender
discrimination, not paying
overtime - and retaliating. De
Niro's lawyers complaint to
SDNY Magistrate Judge Parker
that the plaintiff won't say
to whose salary she's
comparing what she was paid."
The case
was reassigned to District
Judge Lewis J. Liman; a
protective order was filed.
On October 30,
2023, the trial is set to
begin with jury selection, and
to sit daily from 9 to 5. It
begin a civil case, each side
gets 20 hours...
Inner City
Press called to cover the June
28, 2021 conference, and found
the defendants hammering away
at plaintiff Robinson's
alleged misrepresentations.
On December 15,
2021, there was another
conference, that Inner City
live tweeted here
On January 31,
2022 Judge Parker held another
proceeding and Inner City
Press again covered it. Judge
Parker extended discovery,
reluctantly she said, "for the
sole purpose of deposing the
five individuals identified by
Plaintiff: Mr. Robert De Niro,
Mr. Michael Kaplan, Tom
Harvey, Michael Tasch and
Tiffany Chen.
On December 30,
2022, Judge Parker denied a
request to seal a filing
concerning among other things
De Niro's claim that Robinson
was "binge-watching Netflix"
and misusing SkyMiles.
Jump cut to the
first day of trail on October
30, 2023. De Niro was on the
stand being questioned about
his texts with Tiffany Chen,
who accused the plaintiff of
"imaginary intimacy." Thread:
Plaintiff
Robinson's counsel: It was to
get out the middle of your
relationship with Ms Tiffany
Chen?
De Niro: Uh, yes.
Jury is shown
Tiffany Chen's text to De Niro
about Robinson's "imaginary
intimacy" with De Niro.
Q: Ms Chen gave
you an ultimatum to get rid of
Ms Robinson?
With jury gone
for the day, lawyers are
fighting about exhibits. De
Niro in a dark green polo
shirt and jacket, leaves the
courtroom
There followed a
discussion of exhibits PX97
and PX 18.
On November 2,
Tiffany Chen was on the stand.
Among other things, she called
out the plaintiff as "crazy"
and bullsh*t, whereupon
counsel told her, Let's try to
filter ourselves a bit more in
court.
Yeah, let's. With
the jury out of the room,
plaintiff's counsel asked for
a limiting instruction as to
the crazy talk. Denied.
On November 3,
Inner City Press managed to
really live tweet some of the
trial, on SDNYLIVE, thread
November 6 ended
with Chase Robinson still on
cross examination. Inner City
Press live tweeted, thread here
Chase Robinson's lawyer told
Judge Liman about a
threatening text they said was
from Di Nero's daughter:
"received a text message, a
threatening text message, that
the iPhone -- I don't know if
your Honor is aware of this
feature of iPhone that if you
don't have a number, it
suggests who the person may
be, and it suggested it was a
daughter of Mr. De Niro. We
Googled the number, and it did
return back a connection to
that individual's social
media. The text message reads:
You disgusting little beast.
You have nothing better to do
with your pathetic life than
destroy an 80-year-old man's
life for money. You piece of
S-H-I-T. He lost a grandson
only four months ago. Has to
deal with a scumbag like you.
Sickening. Hopefully you and
your family will suffer, like
you have made so many
suffer. We think this is
very serious, particularly
given the timing that Ms.
Robinson is on the stand, and
certainly, in the context of
other inadvertent contacts
from other associates of the
defense side. So we
would ask for an instruction
to Mr. De Niro and to Canal
that no one from his family
and no associates would be
contacting Ms. Robinson
whatsoever. THE COURT: I
think that's appropriate.."
Photo and more of transcript
on Substack here
Judge Liman was
asked if he would seal the
courtroom for voir dire of an
expert and to his credit said
no.
November 7 ended
with arguments about how to
charge the jury, and if they
might deliberate on Friday.
But could the Press get in?
The trial
continues.
The case is
Robinson v. De Niro et al.,
19-cv-9156 (Liman / Parker)
***
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