Leon Black Rape Case Will Head to Trial in NY Federal Court (1)

Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black must face claims that in 2002 he raped a 16-year-old girl in Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse, a New York federal court ruled.

Judge Jessica G.L. Clarke of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Friday denied Black’s motion to dismiss the case, and rejected arguments that the claims brought by “Jane Doe” under New York City’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law are preempted by state law.

“The truth or falsity of that allegation is not the question at this stage,” Clarke wrote. Black, the judge added, “failed ...