Kevin Hart has been named as a defendant in a $60 million (Dh22.35 million) lawsuit filed by Montia Sabbag, a woman who the Philly comic appeared in a September 2017 sex tape with.
Sabbag filed the suit this week in a federal court in Los Angeles, claiming that Hart and several other defendants allowed a sexual encounter with Hart in a Las Vegas hotel room to be filmed without her knowledge or consent, court documents indicate. She is accusing Hart of a number of charges including negligence, invasion of privacy, and infliction of emotional distress.
Hart, Sabbag claims, knew the encounter was being filmed, and allegedly planned to use publicity from the ensuing scandal to gain “tremendous financial benefit for himself” by using it to “promote his Irresponsible Tour” and “increase his overall pop culture status.”
As a result, the suit states, Sabbag’s life has been “‘turned upside down’ by the negligent and unlawful actions” of the defendants due to “substantial emotional distress” inflicted on her “on a daily basis.”
Sabbag and Hart made headlines in 2017 over the scandal, during which the Philly native claimed he was being extorted by a person who threatened to release the sex tape, which was later released in part online. Sabbag denied that she was behind the plot at the time, saying in a press conference with attorney Lisa Bloom that she is “not an extortionist” and “had nothing to do with these recordings.”
Bloom, meanwhile, indicated that her client was “not asking for a cent from Kevin Hart,” and said the Jumanji star was a “victim” in the situation as well.
Hart’s acquaintance, Jonathan Todd Jackson, was later charged with extortion over the incident, and pleaded not guilty last year, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
In the suit, however, Sabbag alleges that Jackson placed a camera in Hart’s hotel room where the encounter took place. Additionally, Sabbag claims, defendants including Hart, Marriott, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, and The Blackstone Group “negligently or intentionally” allowed Jackson access to the room.
Hart made a publicly apology to his wife, Eniko, over the tape in 2017, saying that he is “not perfect” and “made a bad error in judgement.”
“I put myself in a bad environment where only bad things can happen, and they did,” Hart said. “And in doing that, I know that I’m going to hurt the people closest to me, who I talked to and apologised to. That would be my wife and kids.”
This is the second suit Hart has faced involving negligence this year. Previously, in June, a New York City woman filed an assault against the Philly comic over an alleged incident in which Hart’s security guards caused her to fall and sustain serious injuries outside a screening of ‘The Upside’. In that case, Hart and other defendants were allegedly “negligent” and “reckless” in failing to adequately train their security team.
Currently, Hart is recuperating from a major injury to his back, which he sustained following a car crash in California this month. Following news of Hart’s injury, his wife indicated that the comic was “going to be just fine” in an interview with TMZ. According to the outlet, Hart will require a long course of physical rehabilitation as a result of his injuries.
