UPDATE! 8:49 EST P.M.: According to TMZ on Wednesday, Jimmy Bennett is going to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Dept. to file a sexual assault claim against Asia Argento. This comes as Argento’s lawyer, Mark Jay Heller, is accused of publicly attacking Bennett’s character.
Bennett’s lawyer, Gordon Sattro, said “the attack on my client’s character has no bearing on the events that took place on May 9, 2013. These are statements that are meant to intimidate, shame and insult my client.”
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Asia Argento is not backing down…
As we reported on Tuesday, after former costar Jimmy Bennett accused her of sexual assault in a California hotel room, the actress’ lawyer Mark Jay Heller told TMZ that Argento is the real victim.
Related: Rose McGowan Makes New Statement!
In a new statement released to People on Wednesday, the attorney says the now-22-year-old actor is the one who initiated the 2013 encounter. At the time, Bennett was 17, and Argento was 37.
Heller says:
“She was literally attacked by him, he literally jumped on her and he said, ‘You’ve been my sexual fantasy for all these years since I’m 12 years old.’ And she was really in a state of shock — she was frozen, as she said. I think that now all of that has gained clarity.”’
After the initial story broke, Argento released a statement denying Bennett’s sexual assault accusations, saying, “I have never had any sexual relationship with Bennett.” Heller told TMZ that this statement is true because their fling was a one-time encounter, and does not constitute a relationship.
Heller tells People that Argento is now “very pleased” to clarify what she meant when she used the word “relationship.”
“I don’t think they really put an emphasis on the word relationship. She had no sexual relationship with him, he was an acquaintance and a friend over many years… And that would appear to counter with the texts in these statements, but in the texts she clearly said, ‘This horny kid jumped me’ and ‘it was weird and we had sex.’ It would give the impression that it was initiated by her. Well it wasn’t, it was initiated by him.”’
In the texts — where Argento allegedly admits to sleeping with Bennett — one of the messages supposedly read: “The horny kid jumped me… I had sex with him it felt weird.”
Additionally, the lawyer previously told TMZ that Asia’s late boyfriend Anthony Bourdain agreed to pay Bennett $380K even though Argento did nothing wrong. The settlement was first reported by the New York Times, who broke the news about Argento and Bennett’s affair.
Heller explains:
“He insisted on this payment and she was very against it but respected his decision… But now that he’s unfortunately passed on, she does not intent to promote or permit any further money to be paid to [Bennett].”
Reportedly, Bourdain ended up only paying $250k. Argento, however, refuses to cover the balance.
On Wednesday, Heller released an additional statement on his website where he doubles down on Argento’s claim against Bennett. Read it HERE.
[Image via Ivan Nikolov/WENN.]
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