A court has rejected a bid by Julia Ormond’s lawyers to issue a bench warrant for the arrest of CAA co-founder Michael Ovitz, who walked out of a deposition in June after being asked about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
New York state court Judge Adam Silvera found on Thursday that Ovitz should not be held in contempt of court, although he was ordered to complete questioning.
During testimony, Ovitz was asked about her continued relationship with Epstein following the disgraced financier’s conviction for sex crimes. At one point, he stopped engaging. “I’m not going to discuss anything about Jeffrey Epstein,” he said. “You can ask as many questions as you want, you won’t get any answers.”
The inquiry concerns Ovitz’s claim that she would have severed ties with Weinstein if she had known about the former movie mogul’s history of sexual misconduct. Ormond, who rose to prominence in the 90s after acting legends of the fall, first knight And sabrinahad claimed that top CAA executives turned a blind eye to Weinstein’s crimes and failed to warn them about them before the 1995 meeting, which led to his attack. Ovitz was president of CAA during the period immediately prior to the alleged incident.
In the statement, Ovitz said he would have investigated any allegations of sexual misconduct made by Weinstein against one of his clients. Asked what he would have done if the claim had been proven, Ovitz responded that CAA “certainly would not have done any business” with him.
“I didn’t like their business practices,” Ovitz said. “He was a bully and – and he and I got into it at times. I talked to him as little as possible.”
Ormond’s lawyers turned to Ovitz’s relationship with Epstein. Tensions rose when Ovitz was questioned about whether he continued a relationship with the disgraced financier after Epstein was convicted of sex crimes. He stood up from his chair, pointed at Ormond’s attorney and said, “I’m done. OK? You’re out of line.”
In Thursday’s order, the court said Ovitz “improperly terminated” the interrogation. “Ovitz has been warned that proper deposition procedures must be followed,” Silvera wrote.
Nevertheless, the judge stopped short of issuing a bench warrant because Ormond’s attorneys were not sufficiently impressed by Ovitz leaving before the end of his testimony.
“The verdict makes clear that Mr. Ovitz was not entitled to opt out of testifying, and he is not above the law,” Ormond’s attorneys Kevin Mintzer, Meredith Firetogh and Effie Blasbarger said in a statement. “We look forward to resuming testimony and are confident that Mr. Ovitz will behave himself.”
Ovitz’s attorney Jeffrey Mitchell emphasizes that his client has “no connection to the Ormond case, his claims, or the events that occurred after he left CAA in 1995.” He adds, “At the time of the statement, it was [Ovitz’s] See Ormond’s attorney Kevin Mintzer was intentionally insulting and trying to tarnish his name and he walked away as a result.
CAA has also said that the case is not related to Ovitz, whose legal fees are being paid by the agency.
Friendly communications between Ovitz and Epstein came to light earlier this year when the Justice Department released a trove of materials on the disgraced financier. Emails from 2012 revealed that the pair had planned to meet at Epstein’s Manhattan home and the coast of St. Barts.