Horatio Sanz has found himself in legal trouble over his time on Saturday Night Live and the lawsuit apparently has a number of the show’s past stars involved as well. Thursday brought word that a lawsuit has been filed against the former SNL actor accusing him of grooming an underage girl as well as sexual assault amid a years-long sexual relationship.
As Page Six detailed with the full criminal complaint, Sanz is accused of meeting an underage “superfan” and grooming her online through sexually-charged messages and offers of information on the show. He eventually invited her to a cast party where he groped her and made inappropriate advances toward her, including offering her alcohol while cast members “looked the other way.”
The unnamed Pennsylvania teen, who was 17 at the time, was running an “SNL” fan site in May 2002 when Sanz allegedly took her on a limo ride then “digitally penetrated her genitals” at a post-show bash, according to the lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
The girl first met Sanz at age 15 — when he was 31 years old — in 2000 after he invited her to a taping of the sketch comedy show, according to the lawsuit, which names the actor and SNL Studios as defendants.
The next year, he summoned her to several after-show parties where he allowed her to drink, touched her inappropriately and told her “to sit on his lap,” according to the lawsuit.
As the suit details, in August of 2001, when the girl was 16, Sanz reached out online and offered her tickets to the show as well as gave her behind-the-scenes details about the cast and its musical guests. He then asked her for explicit photos and “to perform sexual acts, including masturbation, which he asked her to describe to him.” The suit claims this is the start of a years-long virtual sexual relationship with the girl that later escalated when they met in person.
According to the report, Sanz has called the lawsuit “categorically false.” But the report also detailed an alleged meeting between the two in 2019 where he apologized and claimed to be a “different person” more than a decade later.
When she ran into Sanz at a comedy event in 2019, he apologized, said he “felt terrible” and admitted she could “#metoo” him for his actions, according to the lawsuit.
“[I] swear on a stack of improv books … I’m a different person,” he allegedly said.
“I had a real issue with sex. I was stunted. I didn’t know how it worked,” he added, according to the lawsuit. “I spent all my 20’s trying to be funny. So I wasn’t normal with girls.”
The details of the suit are still unfolding publicly, and the allegations described are disturbing to say the least. But as pointed out both by Page Six and others reading the lawsuit, the particulars are not positive for anyone involved with the show at the time. Cast parties are mentioned several times, and Jimmy Fallon is mentioned by name in the suit, including allegedly emailing the underage girl in addition to Sanz.
wait, fuck, sorry, I completely did not process this part pic.twitter.com/9Ruu56RLtO
— Seth Simons (@sasimons) August 13, 2021
You can read the full lawsuit here.
[via Page Six]