David Guillod, who made his mark in Hollywood as a talent manager and the executive producer of the movie “Atomic Blonde,” has been charged with sexually assaulting multiple women over the past decade, his lawyer said on Monday.
He had stepped down from his position as co-chief executive of Primary Wave Entertainment, a talent agency, in 2017 after the actress Jessica Barth had accused him — at first without naming him, in a blog post, and later online by name — of drugging and sexually assaulting her when he was her manager in 2012.
Mr. Guillod’s lawyer, Philip Cohen, confirmed that he was charged with 11 felony counts, including rape, and that he surrendered to the authorities in Santa Barbara, Calif., on Monday morning. Other women had come forward to the police besides Ms. Barth, The Wrap reported in December 2017, saying that the authorities in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara were investigating Mr. Guillod. It was not immediately clear which accounts led to criminal charges.
Most recently, Mr. Guillod served as the executive producer of “Extraction,” a thriller that was released by Netflix in April. “Atomic Blonde,” starring Charlize Theron, was released in 2017.
In a statement on Monday, a spokeswoman for Mr. Guillod said that “for the past eight years, Mr. Guillod has denied these allegations, and for the past eight years Mr. Guillod has fully cooperated with all aspects of law enforcement’s investigation.”
The statement said that an “overwhelming amount of evidence has been collected over the course of this investigation disputing these charges” and that Mr. Guillod looks forward to clearing his name.
The accusations stem from a period when Mr. Guillod worked as a talent manager, running his own company, Intellectual Artists Management, which announced a merger with Primary Wave in 2015.
In a civil suit last year, an actress, A.J. Cook, best known for her role in “Criminal Minds,” provided detailed accounts of accusations by several women against Mr. Guillod. The legal case erupted after Ms. Cook left the agency as these accounts surfaced. Primary Wave then sued her, seeking more than $300,000 in commission fees it said she owed.
In her countersuit, Ms. Cook, who had hired Mr. Guillod as her manager, accused Primary Wave and Intellectual Artists Management of withholding information about the sexual assault allegations against him. The outcome of the lawsuit against Ms. Cook and her countersuit is still pending.
Ms. Cook’s suit said the companies did not disclose information about the accusation by Ms. Barth, who, it said, had initially gone to the police but backed off after Mr. Guillod threatened to sue her.
Ms. Barth resumed pursuing criminal charges in 2017 after she heard about accounts of additional women, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also listed accusations that Mr. Guillod sexually assaulted his female assistant when she was inebriated at a company retreat in 2014 and that he had drugged and sexually assaulted a female client and her friend in 2015.
After Ms. Cook filed her lawsuit, a spokesman for Mr. Guillod told The Wrap that Ms. Cook’s countersuit was an “attempt to distract from her own financial liability.”
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