Hollywood agent Terry Crews accused of sexual assault will step down from WME

Adam
and Trina Venit at the OF BY FOR Awards in
2016.
Charley Gallay / Stringer/ Getty
Images

• Terry Crews’ lawsuit against talent agent Adam Venit
  has been settled.
• Venit will step down next week, according to
  Deadline.
• Crews accused Venit last year of groping him at a party
  in 2016.

 

Adam Venit, the Hollywood talent agent that actor Terry Crews
accused of sexually assaulting him, will step down on Monday,
according to
The Wrap and Deadline. Crews’ lawsuit
against Venit has been settled and dismissed.

Venit’s talent agency, WME, which used to represent Crews, said
in a statement to Deadline: “Terry Crews, Adam Venit, and
WME have settled the lawsuit Mr. Crews filed last year. It will
be dismissed.” Venit has represented clients
such as Adam Sandler, Eddie Murphy, and Sylvester
Stallone.

Last year, Crews accused Venit of groping
him at an industry party in 2016 and filed a police
report with the Los Angeles Police Department in
November.

“The assault lasted only minutes, but what he was
effectively telling me while he held my genitals in his hand was
that he held the power. That he was in control,” Crews
told the Senate Judiciary Committee while testifying on the
Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights this summer.

“As I shared my story, I was told over and over that this
was not abuse,” Crews continued. “This was just a joke. This was
just horseplay. But I can say one man’s horseplay is another
man’s humiliation. And I chose to tell my story and share my
experience to stand in solidarity with millions of other
survivors around the world. That I know how hard it is to come
forward, I know the shame associated with the assault. It
happened to me.”

WME demoted Venit from his role as head of the Motion Picture
Department in December during an investigation. But prosecutors
did not charge Venit because
the case fell outside the statute of limitations. 

According to The Wrap, Crews’ lawsuit
claimed that he feared retaliation from Venit, even though WME
head Ari Emanuel told him that Venit “did not have
that level of power.”