The Blacklist actor Adele Heather Taylor has accused husband Roberto Orci of physically and sexually assaulting her in a lawsuit filed in late August.
Taylor, who also appeared in Hail, Caesar!, claims that Orci, a screenwriter on the Star Trek and Transformer franchises, was a bipolar alcoholic who would fly into violent rages, dragging her around the house and beating her on multiple occasions, according to documents obtained by Variety.
Among those instances, Taylor claims Orci chased her into the garden in May 2022, pinning her down and threatening to sexually assault her. The following month, Taylor alleges Orci did assault her in the garden, telling her, "You enjoy being raped." Taylor also claims Orci called the police on her in April 2020 after she had tried to defend herself, which resulted in her arrest for domestic abuse.
Taylor's suit states that she left Orci in December 2022 after another assault, during which she says he bragged that the police would not believe her account because she had previously been arrested. Following that incident, Orci filed a restraining order against Taylor and filed for divorce. He has disputed Taylor's allegations via an attorney.
In June, Orci sued Taylor, accusing her of assaulting him on numerous occasions, shooting him with a Taser and pepper-spraying him. He admitted in his suit to a struggle with alcoholism that left him hospitalized and in rehab a number of times. It was his vulnerable condition that Orci claimed Taylor of taking advantage of for financial gain.
It was after the initial suit that Taylor's countersuit was filed. In the new lawsuit, the actress says she and her ex agreed to put their assets into a family trust to be split evenly, but she claims Orci has not followed through.
In response to the countersuit, Orci's lawyer Sallie Hofmeister said in a statement to Variety: "Ms. Taylor's counterclaim is an attempt to retaliate against her husband with fabricated allegations after he got a restraining order against her, filed for divorce, and sued her in June for assault, battery, and financially abusing him when he was vulnerable and trying to get treatment for alcoholism."
The statement continued, "Her history of violent behavior is well documented, having been arrested at least twice during their marriage-once after she tried strangling her husband and he called the police, and once when a Vegas hotel called the authorities after Mr. Orci showed up in the lobby, locked out of his room by his wife, bloodied and half dressed. Ms. Taylor was also detained after assaulting immigration officials at LAX."
"Before Mr. Orci's recovery, Ms. Taylor would ply him with alcohol and beat him relentlessly. On separate occasions, she hit him with a baseball bat, shot him with a taser then sprayed him with Mace, threw him down a set of stairs, and punched him multiple times while he was driving," Hofmeister concluded. "In 2022 and 2023, she transferred without her husband's knowledge at least $1.2 million from their joint bank account to foreign banks. Now, she is fabricating salacious allegations in a desperate attempt to extract more money from him."
If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, you can reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233. You can also chat with a representative at thehotline.org or by texting "START" to 88788.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse or addiction, please call SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). SAMHSA's National Helpline is free, confidential and available 24/7.