“Star Trek” and “Transformers” screenwriter and producer Roberto Orci was accused of “repeatedly” physically and sexually assaulting his wife, actress Adele Heather Taylor, in a lawsuit filed Monday.
The filing, a countersuit to Orci’s June suit against Taylor claiming she assaulted him with a Taser and pepper spray, graphically details years of abuse dating back to a March 2018 incident that saw Taylor fleeing a taxi after Orci struck her three times in the face. It characterizes the producer as a bipolar alcoholic who “seldom takes his medication” — one who would belittle his wife with insults like “whore,” “slut” and “other derogatory, sexist slurs.”
Other instances of assault detailed in the countersuit include a pair of May 2022 and June 2022 incidents where Orci beat Taylor to the ground and raped her in their garden, proclaiming in the former case that he “can do whatever I want to you” and in the latter that “you enjoy being raped.”
“Adele’s anguish over Bob’s sexual assault and rape on these two occasions was compounded by the pain she still carried from being raped twice as a teenager,” the documents read. “Now, Adele felt like a shell of herself. She was traumatized and terrified, and the violence continued.”
Taylor’s response to such instances were complicated by Orci calling the police on her in April 2020 under “false allegations that [she] had physically harmed him” when she was acting in self-defense, the documents claimed. Orci would reaffirm “his control over Adele, bolstered by the implicit threat that he could get her arrested whenever he wanted.”
Such was the case in Taylor’s most recent encounter with Orci in December 2022, in which she recorded his verbal and physical threats before leaving him. He said at the time that no one would believe her if she took action against his abuses. “I can do whatever the f–k I want. You’ve been arrested twice. Like, you’ve got nothing on me,” Orci said.
After that incident, Orci filed a restraining order against Taylor and filed for divorce. In his June lawsuit against his wife, he accused her of taking advantage of him for money while admitting to being a recovering alcoholic who’s done multiple stints in rehab.
Taylor’s countersuit accuses her husband, 15 years her senior, of reneging on an agreement to divide their assets via a family trust that would “provide financial support and security for the rest of her life.” Taylor was a young actress when they first met. Her credits include a guest spot on “The Blacklist” in 2020.
Sallie Hofmeister, a spokesperson for Orci, told TheWrap that 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.”
“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,” the statement continued. “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. 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.”
Orci’s most recent credits include serving as a co-creator on “Sleepy Hollow” and “Hawaii Five-O,” which ended its 10-season run in April 2020.
Responding to TheWrap’s request for comment, Orci’s attorney Daniel R. Paluch of Gipson Hoffman & Pancione, APC said, “My client denies the allegations and is looking forward to litigating the case in the appropriate forum, which is the court.”
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.
