A woman who accused Saturday Night Live alum Horatio Sanz last year of grooming and sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager, now alleges that some of the actor’s crew and castmates, including Jimmy Fallon, were aware of the abuse but did nothing to stop it.
In August 2021, Sanz’s accuser, a Pennsylvania resident known by the pseudonym ‘Jane Doe,’ filed a bombshell complaint against the comedian, claiming that he groped her breasts and touched her genitals in front of his colleagues during an SNL afterparty in 2002, when she was just 17 years old.
Sanz’s attorney, Andrew Brettler at the time strongly denied the claims, calling them ‘ludicrous’ and ‘categorically false,’ and accusing Doe of making a failed attempt to extract a multimillion-dollar settlement.
Now, the accuser has broken her silence in an explosive expose published by The Daily Beast detailing her alleged history with Sanz and SNL, and her suspected abuse, which she said began when she was a teenage superfan of Fallon when he was on the cast of the long-running comedy show.
According to Doe, others at NBC were aware of Sanz’s inappropriate relationship with her, which included public displays of affection at afterparties attended by castmates and staffers.
‘Horatio certainly is the main character here, but he didn’t abuse me in a vacuum; he abused me all over Saturday Night Live,’ the woman told the publication.
Horatio Sanz’s accuser, known as Jane Doe, spoke out for the first time about her alleged sexual abuse since filing a lawsuit last year. She alleges that fellow SNL cast member Jimmy Fallon may have been aware of the inappropriate relationship between her and Sanz
Fallon (left) and Sanz (right), pictured together on Weekend Update in 2003, were close during their time at SNL and shared an office
DailyMail.com on Thursday reached out to NBC’s representatives of SNL and Fallon, and was told that the network ‘cannot comment on legal matters.’
Doe said that she was 15 years old when she became part of SNL’s nascent online community and created a fan page dedicated to Fallon, who was her favorite cast member. She said Fallon and his friend and officemate, Sanz, emailed her to thank her for her efforts.
Flirtatious chats between Sanz and the girl half his age followed, and before long, Doe said she began attending cast afterparties and after-after parties as Sanz’ guest. She claimed many SNL staffers observed her drinking alcohol and doing drugs at those events, despite her being underage at the time.
She alleged in her lawsuit, which names Sanz and NBC as defendants, that the actor would pull her towards his body and touch her buttocks in full few of his colleagues.
According to the plaintiff, Fallon, who currently hosts The Tonight Show, was aware of her age, and even helped her prepare for her standardized aptitude tests.
Doe said Sanz would bring her to SNL’s after parties, where he would touch her and let her do drugs in front of cast members. Pictured: (left) Sanz and Tracy Morgan at a cast party in 2001. (Right) Fallon at an after party after a show hosted by Sarah Michelle Geller
Her lawsuit alleged that when Doe told Fallon she was in high school as the two were sharing a plate of calamari, the comedian replied: ‘so you have a few years before you graduate.’
The complaint went on to say that ‘the people seated at the table became very quiet when Plaintiff disclosed she was a junior in high school.’
At the same event, Doe said Fallon introduced her to Lorne Michaels, SNL’s high-powered creator and producer.
During one after party in the early 2000s, Doe said Fallon introduced her to SNL’s creator Lorne Michaels (pictured holding an Emmy in 2021)
Doe’s friend, who attended a cast party in 2001, said she witnessed the teen sitting with Sanz and Fallon ‘like they were pals,’ and Sanz, who was 32 years old at the time, behaving like the girl’s boyfriend.
The friend, identified by the pseudonym Katherine, said the pair appeared ‘cuddly’ and had their arms around each other.
Katherine told the Daily Beast that at another party, a famous SNL cast member rubbed her leg and called her ‘beautiful,’ which startled her. She was 17 at the time.
Another friend of Doe’s, calling herself Melissa, told the publication that she believes Sanz may have been trying to groom her as well when she was 15 by sending her flirty messages and gifts, including tickets to events and steaks.
Doe said she aspired to work at SNL and was trying to impress Sanz by looking and acting older than her 16 years.
‘I felt like I had been sort of groomed by Horatio into thinking that I was more mature than kids my age,’ she told the publication. ‘It was such a disgusting, warped thing for him to do.’
In May 2002, the woman’s lawsuit alleged that she was invited to a late night party at an unnamed SNL cast member’s apartment, which was filled with provocatively dressed women.
As the two sat together, Doe, then aged 17, claimed that Sanz groped her breasts and touched her genitals in front his several cast members and NBC staffers, one of whom was quoted as exclaiming: ‘are you f***ing serious?’
Later that night, the complaint alleged that Sanz digitally penetrated Doe over her pantyhose.
Following the alleged sexual assault, Doe said she was left feeling confused and angry. When she confronted Sanz, she said he blamed her for the incident, and later told her that Fallon ‘didn’t care if she was a slut.’
Just days after that comment, Doe said she shut down her fan page dedicated to Fallon, which she had spent three years working on.
Doe told the Daily Beast that the most unsettling part of her ordeal is knowing that Fallon, whom she idolized as a teen, witnessed her and Sanz’s interactions.
‘I don’t know how much of our conversations happened when he was in his office at NBC, which he shared with Jimmy Fallon… but I know that I deserve to know,’ she told the outlet.
Through his attorney, Sanz vehemently denied Doe’s allegations last year.
‘Before filing this lawsuit anonymously, she demanded $7.5 million in exchange for her silence,’ Brettler, the actor’s lawyer, said. ‘We, of course, refused and will vigorously contest these totally meritless claims.’
Doe’s lawsuit claimed that because of her experiences, she became isolated from her peers, even after enrolling in college, and suffered shame and depression, eventually beginning to use ‘dissociative drugs’ to an extent that she required hospitalization in 2005.
While she was recovering, she said she had a text message exchange with Sanz, who directed the conversation towards sex, as was his habit, and told her she had a ‘kick a** body’ as a 17-year-old.
The two stayed in touch over the years. According to the lawsuit, Sanz’s interactions with her ‘remained manipulative, degrading, insulting and abusive towards her.’ In 2019, the actor allegedly confided in Doe that he had been pleasuring himself during their online chats when she was in high school.
According to the complaint, Sanz subsequently offered Doe a written apology, telling her in part: ‘ If you want to metoo me you have every right,’ referring to the #MeToo movement.
Sanz appeared on the NBC staple from 1998-2011. In recent years, he’s been seen in films including Clifford, Zeroville, The Sex Addict and Actors Anonymous; and TV shows such as GLOW, Black Monday, Duncanville and The Mandalorian (pictured in 2019)
Despite admitting that what he did was ‘wrong,’ according to Doe, the comic also sought to downplay the alleged abuse.
‘Making out with 16-year-old is far from Kiddie f***ing,’ he was quoted as allegedly stating. ‘Not appropriate but Jesus. Kiddie F***er?’
Doe said despite having chat logs from the early 2000s documenting her conversations with Sanz, her friends’ witness accounts, and even Sanz’s alleged confession, the actor still has not been to account for his actions.
Sanz appeared on the NBC staple from 1998-2011. In recent years, he’s been seen in films including Clifford, Zeroville, The Sex Addict and Actors Anonymous; and TV shows such as GLOW, Black Monday, Duncanville and The Mandalorian.
