Terry Richardson Accused of Sexually Abusing Model in New Lawsuit

Terry Richardson, who for years courted some of the biggest brands in fashion despite multiple sexual assault allegations throughout his career, was hit with a lawsuit Tuesday accusing him of sexually assaulting a model during a photoshoot in 2004, the New York Times reported.

The lawsuit was brought by Minerva Portillo, who is from Spain and was just 22 at the time of the alleged abuse. According to the suit, Portillo had just moved to New York and during her first meeting with Richardson in 2004, the photographer was only wearing a robe. When she expressed her concerns to her agency, Trump Model Management, she was told that “given Mr. Richardson’s prominence and influence in the industry, Ms. Portillo should overlook his behavior,” per the filing. The agency founded by former President Donald Trump, which closed in April 2017 shortly after he was inaugurated, is also listed as a defendant in the lawsuit.

In May that year, she had been booked for a shoot with Richardson, but when she arrived at his studio she began to feel “dizzy, disoriented, and not fully in control of her body” after being given an “an intoxicating or narcotic substance,” according to the suit.

During the photoshoot, Portillo alleges that Richardson photographed her topless and “forcibly inserted his penis into her mouth, and ordered her to perform oral sex on him,” while she repeatedly said “no,” and his employees photographed the alleged assault.

Portillo returned the next day to resume work, as she was fearful of losing her job and the agency’s support of her visa, according to the filing, and on the second day while traveling in a van, Richardson allegedly “commanded her to perform oral sex on him” while photographs were taken by his employees.

She abandoned her modeling career, per the suit, and returned to Spain a week later.

Some of the photographs appeared in an exhibition titled “Terry Richardson: Terryworld” that fall, and were published in a book, Kibosh, in 2006. Portillo sent a cease-and-desist letter in 2005 and said she did not consent to the distribution or sale of the photographs. The lawsuit said that she had signed an undated release form after the first photoshoot, but due to her state of mind and because English was not her first language, she “did not know what she was signing.”

A representative for Terry Richardson did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request.

Portillo previously shared her story with Vogue Spain in 2017. She has brought the new lawsuit under the the Adult Survivors Act, which created a one-year window for survivors to sue their abusers and the institutions that protected sexual predators. The window closes on Thursday.