4th woman accuses Chris Noth of sexual assault, calls for N.Y. to change statute of limitations

Another woman has said she was sexually assaulted by Chris Noth, the “Law & Order” and “Sex and the City” star, becoming the fourth woman this month to make allegations against him.

The woman, Lisa Gentile, a singer-songwriter who came forward Thursday to allege that Noth assaulted her in 2002, is the first of his accusers to name herself publicly.

The Hollywood Reporter last week published the accounts of two anonymous women who accused of Noth of sexual assault in incidents alleged to have happened in 2004 and 2015.

Noth denied the allegations from the Hollywood Reporter story last week. “The encounters were consensual,” he said. “It’s difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I don’t know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women.”

Another unnamed woman who spoke to The Daily Beast the day after the Hollywood Reporter article said Noth assaulted her in 2010; Noth denied her account through a spokesperson, calling it a “complete fabrication.”

NBC News has not independently spoken to any of the anonymous accusers and does not know their identities. Representatives for Noth did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Gentile’s allegations Thursday.

Gentile said she first met Noth at Don Marino, a New York restaurant, in 1998 and struck up a conversation-based friendship over the years.

Gentile said at a news conference Thursday that one night in 2002, Noth offered her a ride home. Gentile alleges that when she and Noth were in her apartment, he groped her, tried to remove her clothing and tried to push her hands toward his groin. She said he became “extremely angry” and stormed out after she said, “No, I don’t want this!”

She said Noth called her the next day and “warned me that if I ever told a soul about what happened the night before, that he would ruin my career, that I would never sing again, and he would blacklist me in the business.”

“I was afraid to come forward because of Mr. Noth’s power and his threats to ruin my career,” Gentile said.

Gloria Allred, Gentile’s attorney, said Thursday that the New York state statute of limitations prevents her client from taking legal action.

“The courthouse door is slammed shut in her face, denying her an opportunity to assert and vindicate her rights in a court of law because of the statute of limitations,” Allred said.

Gentile said, “I feel that we should have our day in court to seek to hold Mr. Noth accountable for what he did.”

Allred, a veteran litigator, called upon Noth’s former “Sex and the City” co-stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis to speak out in support of a bill before the New York Legislature to change the statute of limitations.

“Lisa and I appreciate their words of support for the previous accusers of Chris Noth, and now, we urge Sarah, Cynthia and Kristin to take action to speak out in support of the Adult Survivors Act, as Lisa and I are doing today,” Allred said. “Their endorsement of this act will be important to its passage when the New York Legislature begins its session next month.”

Allred also issued something of a political challenge to the Legislature and the governor.

“We also call on the first woman governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, to include the passage of the ASA in her State of the State address in the Assembly chamber when she delivers her remarks in less than two weeks on January 5, 2022,” Allred said.

“We also urge Chris Noth to speak out in support of the New York Adult Survivors Act,” she said. “He has asserted in his statement that everything he did with those who have accused him was consensual. If that is true, then he should support the ASA so that the accusers’ allegations can be resolved in a court of law, rather than in a court of public opinion.”

Allred said Gentile found it “upsetting to see him in the news recently,” echoing the sentiments of some of Noth’s other accusers. “Definitely, it was triggering for Lisa,” she said.

Following the initial allegations last week, Peloton pulled an ad featuring Noth, he was dropped from the cast of the CBS series “The Equalizer,” and a multimillion-dollar deal involving his tequila company fell through.

CORRECTION (Dec. 23, 2021, 11:05 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misspelled the first name of a co-star of “Sex and the City.” She is Kristin Davis, not Kristen.