I don’t know what state this happened in, but let’s assume New York. Here’s the statute for you: http://ypdcrime.com/penal.law/article130.htm#p130.20

I would have thought 5 years of unsourced rumors would have also encouraged Louis’s numerous victims. Maybe if we just keep repeating vague rumors that an unnamed comic did unspecified lewd acts for another 50 years someone will come forward.

“These allegations [against Louis C.K.] have been leveled and talked about for years. I do not have first hand knowledge, though have heard women make these allegations.”

It says the accusations were first made by Kirkman. They were not.

But Jen Kirkman didn’t say it, and the article says she did.

Fair enough. Even without a legal case, no one has accused him of acts that would amount to assault. Whether he’s legally guilty of assault is conceptually different from whether he assaulted someone, but I don’t think it’s a discussion worth having unless someone actually accused (legally or informally) him of acts…

If he locked the door, which no one but gizmodo has accused him of, that would be false imprisonment. It would not be sexual assault. Those are different crimes.

The US has the first amendment, so it’s harder to bring successful defamation actions here. And you can’t domesticate a judgment on a UK defamation action in the US, so there’s no benefit to suing a US entity in the U.K. for defamation.

“Yes, unfortunately there is overlap now,” says Sr. Univision, stroking his checkbook.

There are zero states with common law crimes now. Everything is statutory. So it depends on all the circumstances and what state he was in, but there’s no accusation.

Also, they originated the rumor.

You can’t collect on U.K. defamation judgments in the US, so unless Univision has assets in the U.K. it doesn’t matter.

But who else made the allegations? I have googled it. And as near as I can tell gawker made it up and they don’t have a source. A lot of people reposted it, but they’re just repeating gawker’s claims, which are based on nothing.

Kirkman hasn’t accused CK of anything. No one else has accused him of anything with any specificity.

Who else made them?

If there were actual accusations, we could look at the alleged behavior and compare it to a statute.

Has someone accused him of assault?

Neither did Kirkman.

BUT there’s so much more synergy now.

There are a lot of practical reasons not to sue. Namely, it would be time consuming and expensive and probably not worth it even if he won.