A judge has thrown out a lawsuit that accused Warren Beatty of coercing a teenage girl into sex in 1973, after the plaintiff’s attorney backed out of the case.
Kristina Charlotte Hirsch filed the suit in November 2022 under a California law that temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse. She alleged that Beatty used his power in the entertainment industry to coerce her into sex when she was 14 or 15 years old.
Beginning last year, Hirsch was represented by Michael Reck of Jeff Anderson & Associates, a firm that has handled thousands of sexual abuse lawsuits over the last several decades. But in July, Reck withdrew from the case.
Hirsch has since been unable to find a lawyer to represent her, she said in an interview. She has submitted several court filings since July saying she intended to pursue the case, but that she has suffered a series of setbacks that have made it difficult.
She wrote that she was attacked by a group of meth addicts in a Vons parking lot in Santa Monica in August and had to brandish a knife to defend herself. She was detained by Santa Monica police and released five days later, according to her account and jail records.
In one filing, she said she has had to request “2 RICO cases to be opened by the FBI for the defendant and his organized crime associates.”
At the outset of the case, Reck submitted a declaration stating that he had interviewed the plaintiff, hired an investigator to help substantiate her account, and consulted with a mental health professional, who had reached the conclusion that her allegations were indeed “reasonable and meritorious.”
In the interview and in her court filings, Hirsch said that her attorneys wanted her to accept a settlement for $130,000, of which the attorneys would take 40% plus costs. She said she wanted them to litigate the case.
Judge Edward B. Moreton, Jr. dismissed the case with prejudice on Friday, meaning it cannot be refiled. He noted that Beatty had not actually been served with the complaint.
Update, Dec. 21: On Monday, Moreton amended the order to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning it can be refiled.
