Rose McGowan’s Racketeering Lawsuit Against Harvey Weinstein Dismissed

AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes

Rose McGowan’s racketeering case against Harvey Weinstein and his lawyers was fully dismissed after McGowan fired her attorneys and missed a court-ordered filing deadline. 

McGowan filed the RICO suit against Weinstein and his attorneys, David Boies and Lisa Bloom, in 2019. She accused them of a “pattern of racketeering,” spying on her and intimidating her in an alleged effort to keep her from speaking publicly about her rape allegation against Weinstein. 

But McGowan’s RICO case failed to gain much traction, and the judge overseeing the case, Otis D. Wright, dismissed most of McGowan’s claims in Dec. 2020. While Judge Wright allowed McGowan to move forward with two fraud claims and amend her racketeering charge, an amended complaint was also dismissed. 

In a Nov. 9 ruling, Judge Wright said that Weinstein and Co.’s “effort to silence McGowan was a single, unified project with an end goal and an end date,” and “not the sort of continuous effort that is prohibited by RICO.” Despite the dismissal, the judge gave McGowan until Dec. 3 to file another brief on whether the rest of her charges should be filed in federal court, or if they should instead be handled by state court.

Weeks later, though, McGowan’s lead attorney Julie Porter left the case and said in a filing said that McGowan had fired her over Zoom. Porter added that McGowan “did not authorize me to take any positions on the questions the court posed.” McGowan then missed the Dec. 3 briefing deadline, which led to the Dec. 6 dismissal. 

Representatives for McGowan, Weinstein, Bloom, and Boies did not immediately return Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.

“As of today’s date, Plaintiff has not filed any brief in response to the Court’s Order and Minute Order,” court filings read. “Accordingly, Plaintiff is deemed to have conceded the two points the Court gave her opportunity to argue in the supplemental brief. Accordingly, the Court concludes that Plaintiff is unable to sufficiently plead a RICO claim, meaning that further amendment would be futile… and the Court will not exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the remaining state-law claims.”

While McGowan’s personal case against Weinstein has collapsed, the disgraced former film executive is still contending with myriad legal issues. Last year, he was found guilty of a felony sex crime and rape in New York, and was sentenced to 23 years in prison (he has since appealed the conviction). Weinstein is also facing numerous charges of rape and sexual assault in Los Angeles, to which he has pleaded not guilty.