Three women accuse Dustin Hoffman of sexual harassment

One of them was in high school when the alleged harassment occurred

Three women have come forward to accuse actor Dustin Hoffman of sexual misconduct, including one who said he exposed himself to her when she was in high school, Variety reports.

Cori Thomas said in 1980, she spent an afternoon with Hoffman and his daughter, her classmate Karina, in New York City. Instead of picking her up at a restaurant, Hoffman changed the plans and told the restaurant to tell Thomas’ parents to pick her up at his hotel room. Karina left and Hoffman decided to take a shower, coming out in a towel and then dropping it. “It was the first time I had ever seen a naked man,” Thomas, who was 16 at the time, said. “I was mortified.” Thomas said he asked her to massage his feet, which she did because she “didn’t know that I could say no,” and he made suggestive comments, which she ignored.

Two other women told Variety Hoffman sexually assaulted them while filming 1987’s Ishtar. Melissa Kester said her boyfriend at the time was working on the movie’s music, and brought her to the recording studio several times. During one visit, Hoffman called her into the recording booth, Kester said, and he “just stuck his fingers down my pants. He put his fingers inside me. I didn’t know what to do.” Variety also spoke to a woman who was an extra in Ishtar, who shared a similar story. While shooting in New York City, Hoffman offered her a ride home with several other people, the woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said. In the back of the station wagon, Hoffman “just took his hand and stuck his fingers right up inside of me,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do.” He asked her to go to his hotel room, and there, they had intercourse.

The woman told Variety she considered the station wagon incident non-consensual, and when asked if the hotel encounter was, she said, “I don’t know.” Hoffman’s attorney, Mark A. Neubauer, called the accusations “defamatory falsehoods.” Earlier this year, Anna Graham Hunter accused Hoffman of groping her in 1985, while she was a teenager.

source: theweek.com