You Saw It. The Hotel’s Camera Saw It. Now the Question Is What You Do.
Maybe you are the woman who finally told your story to a federal jury, or you are the friend who sat in that courtroom, or you are the man who worked the door that night and cannot unsee what you saw. Maybe you are a sister, a mother, a daughter who has been holding this for years. Or maybe you are a person who has been reading the headlines, recognizing patterns in your own life that you have not yet named out loud.
We have spent twenty-four years on the trial side of cases like this — catastrophic assault, negligent security, the fight after a criminal case ends. We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We are a Texas-based trial firm that takes on catastrophic injury and negligent-security cases nationwide, including California. We work on contingency — you pay nothing unless we recover. Free consultations, twenty-four hours a day, in English or in Spanish. Hablamos Español. Call 1-888-ATTY-911.
This page is for you. We are going to walk you through, in plain English, what happened in that InterContinental Los Angeles hallway in March 2016, what happened in a private home in Los Angeles in 2024, what the federal jury and the federal judge did in 2025, and most importantly, what civil law in California gives you the right to do now.
Nothing on this page is legal advice for your case. It is general legal information about California and federal law as it applies to the public record from a 2025 federal trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. The standard we hold for any case we take is simple: the evidence has to be there, and a real person has to have been hurt in a way the law recognizes. If both are true, we can talk.
The Second Woman: The 2024 Beating That Put “Jane” in the Hospital
In the same federal trial, a second woman — identified in court only as “Jane” — described a different night, in a private home in Los Angeles, in June 2024. She and the entertainer had been arguing about his relationship with a much younger woman. She called him a word she had not used before. He grabbed her by the hair. He dragged her down a hallway by her hair and her arm. He kicked her in the back of the thigh so she fell. He put her in a chokehold on the ground until she could not breathe. He told her she was “trying to take him away from his kids and his family.”
She ran out of the house. She hid behind a wall outside for two hours. She came back when he appeared to calm down. He attacked her again. He started punching her head. He kicked her. He told her “just leave me alone.” He grabbed her again and dragged her back to the house by her hair.
When she finally got away, she had two golfball-sized welts on her forehead and a black eye.
This is not rumor either. It is public testimony in open court, and the man she described is now a federally sentenced felon. He was convicted on October 3, 2025, and sentenced to 50 months in federal prison, five years of supervised release, and a $500,000 fine.
The criminal case is over. The civil case is just beginning.
The Three Civil Doors: Who You Can Sue and Why
Most survivors of a serious assault understand they can sue the person who hurt them. Fewer understand how many other doors are open. In a case that looks anything like the public record here, three categories of defendant line up.
Door One — The Man Who Hurt You
The person who committed the assault is liable for the obvious claims: assault, battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and, in the right case, civil claims for sex trafficking under federal law. In California, the SOL for these claims is governed by Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1 (the general two-year personal injury clock) and § 340.16 (which gives sexual assault victims a longer runway — ten years from the act or one year from discovery, whichever is later). For childhood sexual assault, § 340.15 provides additional protection. We do not need to tell you how long you have — we will pull the exact calendar for the exact claim and the exact state of facts when you call.
A person of substantial means can be a difficult defendant in a different way than a person without means. He will have a defense team. He will deny. He will attack your credibility. He will try to settle for as little as possible, and he will try to do it before you have time to understand the full value of your case. None of that changes the basic shape of the civil case. The man who committed the assault is the central defendant. The criminal conviction is your evidence.
Door Two — The Hotel
This is the part most survivors never learn until they talk to a lawyer. The hotel in the 2016 record was the InterContinental Los Angeles. The InterContinental brand is part of IHG Hotels & Resorts, which is the operating name of InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, a United Kingdom parent. IHG is one of the largest hotel companies in the world, and the InterContinental is its flagship luxury brand. Hotels in this tier do not run on handshake arrangements. They are operated by subsidiary companies, owned by separate property LLCs, and insured by large commercial carriers. The corporate structure is built like a shell. Behind the shell sits real money.
A California hotel that houses paying guests owes them a duty of reasonable care. The leading case is Ann M. v. Pacific Plaza Shopping Center, 6 Cal. 4th 586 (1993), where the California Supreme Court held that a commercial landlord who holds itself out as providing a safe place to shop — and who has the practical ability to take security measures — owes a duty of care to invitees to protect them from foreseeable criminal harm. Hotels, which charge a premium for safety as much as for a bed, sit squarely inside that rule. The hotel’s duty is not to prevent every crime that ever happens. The duty is to take reasonable steps when the danger is foreseeable, and to act with reasonable care when the danger arrives at the front desk.
In the public record from 2016, the InterContinental had actual notice of the assault in its own guest room. Its security guard was there. Its own camera was rolling. Its own guard was then offered a bag of cash and told to keep quiet. The hotel then took no visible action. A California jury can be asked to find that the hotel failed in its duty, that the failure made the harm worse, and that the failure was so reckless that punitive damages are appropriate under California Civil Code § 3294. That statute, which has been on the books since 1977, allows punitive damages when a plaintiff proves the defendant acted with malice, oppression, or fraud:
“In an action for the breach of an obligation not arising from contract, where it is proven by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant has been guilty of oppression, fraud, or malice, the plaintiff, in addition to the actual damages, may recover damages for the sake of example and by way of punishing the defendant.”
— Cal. Civ. Code § 3294(a).
The bribe in front of a hotel security guard, the grab for the recording phone, the camera that captured the whole thing — these are not just evidence of an assault. They are evidence of corporate conduct that California law says is fair game for punitive damages.
Door Three — Anyone Else Who Knew, Helped, or Looked the Other Way
The federal case alleged the entertainer used a network of staff and assistants to help coordinate travel, security, hotels, and money for the events at the center of the case. Whether any of those individuals or entities share civil liability depends on the facts of your case. Some of the same entities may have been part of the federal case. Some may be new to you. We map the web before we file.
In the right case, civil claims against third parties include aiding and abetting, civil conspiracy, and negligent hiring, supervision, and retention. California’s aiding-and-abetting tort has its own elements — purpose to assist, knowledge of the wrongful purpose, and conduct that assisted the wrongdoing. Civil conspiracy requires an agreement to commit a wrong plus an overt act in furtherance. Negligent hiring requires that the defendant entity knew, or should have known, of the danger its people created, and let them work anyway.
For hotel defendants, there is an additional federal door. The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, at 18 U.S.C. § 1595, gives a trafficking survivor a civil claim against anyone who “knowingly benefits, or attempts or conspires to benefit, financially or by receiving anything of value from participation in a venture which that person knew or should have known has engaged in an act in violation of this chapter.” The federal case alleged that hotel rooms were part of the venture. A hotel that took room revenue from a guest it knew or should have known was using the room for sex trafficking may be on the hook under section 1595, in addition to its state-law negligent security exposure.
California Law: Your Civil Rights After an Assault
The civil rights you have in California after an assault are stronger than in most states, but they have real time limits, and you need to know them.
California Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1 — the general two-year personal injury statute of limitations. Battery, assault, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress are all governed by this clock unless a longer one applies.
California Code of Civil Procedure § 340.15 — the childhood sexual assault clock. This statute gives a victim of childhood sexual assault additional time, tolling the limitations period in cases involving medical injury.
California Code of Civil Procedure § 340.16 — the adult sexual assault clock. This statute gives adult victims of sexual assault a longer limitations period: ten years from the act, or one year from the date the victim discovered that the injury was caused by the assault, whichever is later.
California Civil Code § 3294 — punitive damages. As quoted above, a plaintiff can recover punitive damages in addition to actual damages when she proves by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with malice, oppression, or fraud. The “Don’t tell anyone” line, the attempt to grab a phone, the concealing of evidence, the years of denials followed by a federal conviction — these are the kinds of facts California juries look at when they decide whether to add a punishment number to the verdict.
Pure comparative fault. California is a pure comparative fault state. That means your recovery is reduced by your share of the fault, but it is never automatically erased by it. Even if a jury thought you were ten percent at fault for staying in the room or not leaving sooner, you still recover ninety percent of your damages. There is no “you were partly at fault, so you get nothing” rule in California. There is no fifty-one percent bar. The defense will try to assign you blame. California law gives you the full answer to that.
Discovery rule. California applies a discovery rule to latent injuries. If the harm you suffered was hidden, or the connection between the harm and the assault was not obvious, the clock may not start until you discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, the injury and its cause. This matters for any claim tied to delayed PTSD, delayed injury, or delayed discovery of what was done to you.
“In actions for the breach of an obligation not arising from contract, where it is proven by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant has been guilty of oppression, fraud, or malice, the plaintiff, in addition to the actual damages, may recover damages for the sake of example and by way of punishing the defendant.”
— Cal. Civ. Code § 3294(a).
We cannot tell you on a webpage which clock applies to your case. We can tell you, on a free call, what the calendar looks like for the specific claims we would file on your behalf.
The Insurance-Adjuster Playbook — And How We Counter Every Move
The people who decide what your case is worth are not on the jury. They are in a building somewhere, sitting in front of a computer, running your file through a valuation program, deciding the lowest number they can offer you that will make you go away. We know exactly how they think, because one of our trial attorneys, Lupe Peña, spent years inside that world. He knows the playbook because he used to run it. Now he sits on your side of the table. Here is what you will see, in the order you will see it.
Play One — The Sympathy Call. Within days of any incident involving a public figure, the defense team will try to reach the survivor through a friend, a relative, a publicist, or a public-facing account. The call is warm. The voice is kind. They want to “check on you.” They want to know how you are doing. They want to know what you remember. The counter: Do not take the call. Do not respond to the message. Anything you say in a casual conversation with the other side can be used against you. The right move is to refer the caller to your lawyer, and if you do not have one yet, to call us first. The phone call you do not take cannot be quoted at trial.
Play Two — The Quick Check. A check will arrive. It will be large enough to feel like a solution and small enough to feel insulting. It will come with a release that, once you sign it, ends your right to sue for anything related to the incident. It will come with a “we want to do the right thing” letter that is, in fact, a settlement offer on the eve of litigation. The counter: Do not cash the check until you have read the release with a lawyer. Do not sign anything. Most survivors who accept early checks later learn that the same check was a fraction of what the case is worth. We have watched it happen hundreds of times. We have a separate page on early settlement offers at our insurance-claim-lawyer practice area if you want to see the full list of traps.
Play Three — The Recorded Statement. The insurance company will ask, very politely, to take a recorded statement from you. The statement will be conducted by a “claim specialist.” The questions will feel like a conversation. The answers you give will be transcribed and used to lock you into a version of events. The counter: Do not give a recorded statement. Your attorney will give a written statement on your behalf, with exhibits, with the documents the insurance company has in its own file attached, and with the questions that need to be answered instead of the questions the insurance company wants to ask. If a recorded statement is unavoidable, it happens with your lawyer present, in a controlled setting, with full preparation. The defense will resist this. That resistance tells you everything you need to know about how the statement would have gone.
Play Four — The “Independent” Medical Examination. The insurance company will send you to a doctor of their choosing for an “independent” medical exam. The doctor is paid by the insurance company. The exam lasts an hour. The report is twenty pages and finds that you are not as hurt as you say. The counter: Your treating physicians — the emergency room doctor, the orthopedic surgeon, the physical therapist, the trauma-focused psychologist — are the witnesses who will testify. The defense IME doctor is cross-examination material. We prepare our clients for defense IMEs the way we prepare witnesses for trial, and we use the IME report at trial to impeach the defense expert.
Play Five — The Surveillance. Once you file suit, the defense will hire a private investigator. The investigator will photograph you in public. The investigator will look for any gap between how injured you say you are and what you are seen doing in a grocery store. The counter: Live your life. Do not perform injury. Do not hide. Do not pretend. We will tell you the same thing before, during, and after the case. A real injury, honestly lived, is the strongest evidence a jury will ever see. The defense’s surveillance usually proves the case, not defeats it. We have a full page on this if you want to know more.
Play Six — The Policy-Limits Shell Game. The insurance company will tell you, in writing, that the policy limit is the maximum they can pay. The number will sound large but will be calibrated to be just under the case’s real value. The counter: We pull every policy. We pull the umbrella. We pull the hotel’s parent company’s policy. We pull the entertainer’s personal policies. We pull the entertainment company’s policies. The policy limit is rarely the only number. And the man who committed the assault has personal assets, business assets, and brands. A judgment can attach to all of it. We will not let the first number be the only number.
The Damages You Don’t See: Brain Injury From Strangulation
We have a separate practice area for the kind of injury that often goes undiagnosed after a violent assault. The 2024 “Jane” testimony described being placed in a chokehold until she could not breathe. A chokehold is a compression of the carotid arteries and the jugular veins in the neck. It cuts off blood flow to the brain. Within seconds, the brain begins to lose function. Within four to ten minutes, brain cells begin to die. Survivors of strangulation frequently report symptoms that look psychiatric but are actually neurological: memory loss, difficulty concentrating, sleep disturbance, headaches, emotional dysregulation, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
These injuries are real. They are measurable. They are misdiagnosed as “subjective” or “psychological” by defense experts far too often. If you have been strangled, choked, or had your airway cut off by an assailant, ask for a brain injury evaluation. We have a full page on the brain injury work we do if you want to see what the medical proof looks like in a case like this.
Tonight: The First 72 Hours
If you are reading this and something here sounds like your life, here is what we tell the people who call us. These are the moves that protect the case.
Step One. Get to a safe place. A hospital. A friend’s home. A family member’s home. Anywhere that is not the place where the harm happened or the place where the man who hurt you can reach you. If you are in immediate danger, call 911.
Step Two. Get medical care, even if you do not feel injured. The forensic evidence of strangulation, of being struck, of being restrained, often does not show up for hours or days. The medical record of an evaluation, even a brief one, is the foundation of the civil case. A hospital or urgent care visit also creates a contemporaneous record of your complaint.
Step Three. Do not talk about the case on social media. Do not talk about it in text messages. Do not talk about it on a phone call you might later wish had been private. Anything you say can be used. The silence you keep now is the protection you give yourself later.
Step Four. Identify the witnesses. The friend you called. The person who saw you in the days after. The person who was in the room, in the car, on the phone, at the door. Names, phone numbers, last known addresses. Write them down. Memories fade. Witnesses move. The sooner you write the names down, the better the case looks.
Step Five. Preserve the physical evidence. Do not throw away the clothing you were wearing. Do not delete the messages. Do not wipe the phone. If there is text, screenshot it. If there is a voicemail, save it. If there is a recording, save the original. The defense will look for evidence they can use. We look for evidence you can use.
Step Six. Call us. 1-888-ATTY-911. Free consultation. No fee unless we win. Twenty-four hours a day, in English and in Spanish. We will tell you on that call whether we are the right firm for your case, and if we are not, we will tell you who is. We do not take every case. We take the cases where the evidence is there and the harm is real. We will know, on the call, whether yours is that case.
Your Next Step
We are here when you are ready. You can reach us three ways. Phone, twenty-four hours a day, every day, at 1-888-ATTY-911 (1-888-288-9911). The direct line to Ralph is (713) 528-9070, and his cell is (713) 443-4781. You can email Ralph at ralph@atty911.com or Lupe at lupe@atty911.com. You can also reach us through the contact page on our website.
We do not make you prove your case to get a free consultation. We do not make you bring documents to the first call. We do not make you pay us anything to find out whether we can help. The first call is free. It is confidential. It is twenty-four hours a day. It is in English and in Spanish. Hablamos Español. If we take your case, you pay us nothing unless we recover for you. If we do not take your case, we will tell you, and we will point you to a firm that does.
The criminal case in New York ended in October 2025 with a 50-month federal sentence. The civil case, in California, is just beginning. If you are a survivor, a witness, a family member, or a friend who has been carrying this, you have time. The clocks we described above are real, but they are not yet up. The evidence that is going to matter in your case may be sitting in a hotel server in Los Angeles, in a police evidence room, in a therapy chart, or in a text message on a phone. We will know, on the call, which clocks are running and which evidence is most at risk.
The first move is the call. 1-888-ATTY-911. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. Free consultation. No fee unless we win. We are ready when you are.