The former manager of Forever In Your Mind boyband member Ricky Garcia has been found liable of sexually abusing the singer.
Garcia, 25, said his ex-manager Joby Harte, 42, raped and sexually assaulted him ‘dozens of times’ during his pre-teen and teenage years, with the abuse occurring on a ‘weekly basis’ after his sixteenth birthday.
A Los Angeles jury found Harte liable for childhood sexual abuse, gender violence and intentional infliction of emotional distress on Friday, Garcia’s attorney Michael S. Popok told DailyMail.com.
Harte was handed a $6.5 million dollar judgement including for punitive damages.
‘A California jury sent a clear and strong message that sexual predators especially in the entertainment industry will not be tolerated and that their victims can find a measure of vindication for their lifelong in the US court system,’ said Popok.
The former manager of Forever In Your Mind boyband member Ricky Garcia has been found liable of sexually abusing the singer
A Los Angeles jury found Joby Harte (pictured) liable for childhood sexual abuse, gender violence and intentional infliction of emotional distress on Friday
‘Our client, Mr. Garcia, wept openly in court when the jury returned its verdict beginning a healing process for him that is more than a decade in the making.’
The former Disney channel star of Best Friends Whenever said on his Instagram story, ‘Thank you to my amazing lawyers for working tirelessly towards justice.’
‘Beyond grateful for my team who stood strong in the truth.’
The ruling is part of lengthy legal battle that started in 2019 when Garcia, aged 20 at the time, first sued his former manager and several other music industry executives, citing years of sexual abuse beginning when he was just 12-years-old.
Garcia said Harte groomed him from a young age to be a ‘sexual plaything that could be passed around his friends in the business’, including his associates ex-APA agent Tyler Grasham and manager producer Nils Larsen.
‘[Harte] targeted an economically and emotionally vulnerable pre-teen and his parents. He then groomed and seduced the child’s mother to have her lay down her defenses and give him unfettered access to her son, making her an unwitting accomplice to his depravity,’ said the initial complaint.
According to Garcia’s attorneys, Harte – who owns Hot Rock Media – allegedly started out slowly with his apparent grooming techniques, which included him occasionally talking to Garcia about his own sexuality, sexual history, before moving on to show him pornography and urging him to try out his sex toys.
However, the subtle advances later culminated ‘in Harte intoxicating [Garcia], stripping him naked and raping him’, the actor said.
Over the next few years, with his ‘defenses and psyche in tatters,’ Harte began abusing his client weekly, as well making him ‘available’ to be abused by Grasham and Larsen as well.
On one specific occasion, Harte is said to have organized a two-night ‘songwriting session’ on Catalina Island in 2014, without Garcia’s parents present.
Garcia said Harte got him intoxicated on a cocktail of tequila and vodka before he blacked out and woke up hours later in Harte’s bed.
When questioning his manager what happened, Harte apparently replied that Harte had undressed him and bathed him because he had vomited everywhere before blacking out.
Garcia, 25, said his ex-manager Joby Harte, 42, raped and sexually assaulted him ‘dozens of times’ during his pre-teen and teenage years
Garcia has gone on to act in the Netflix movie Finding ‘Ohana and married his wife Alli Nadine Garcia (right) in 2023
On his seventeenth birthday, Garcia said he was showering at a hotel resort when Harte got inside the stall and forced the teen to masturbate him until he ejaculated.
Grasham has been accused by Garcia of making sexually suggestive comments towards him and licking his toes, while Larsen is said to have grabbed his penis over his pants during a concert in 2016.
In the complaint, Garcia says he didn’t tell anyone about the experiences until March of 2018, because he was afraid speaking out would derail his career, and cause him to lose friends and his bandmates.
The band Forever in Your Mind was formed in 2013 when Garcia was cut from the X Factor boot camp round and Simon Cowell asked him to join a group.
Garcia has gone on to act in the Netflix movie Finding ‘Ohana and married his wife Alli Nadine Garcia in 2023.