Court Awards $9 Million Sexual Harassment Against Yoga Guru Bikram Choudhury

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES, July 3, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- At the vulnerable age of 18, Jill Lawler joined Bikram’s Yoga Training Seminar and set out on her life’s dream of becoming a Bikram Yoga instructor. As the lawsuit alleges, this dream quickly turned into a nightmare when, after being groomed in cultish environment, Lawler was sexually assaulted and raped by a then 66-year-old Bikram Choudhury, who took every advantage of his role, stature, and prestige.

To this end, as the lawsuit alleges, Choudhury used his exhaustive teacher training program to force Lawler and numerous other victims into submission, and once exhausted, he would invite these female students to his hotel room late at night to watch movies so he could have his way with them against their will.

Infamously, the yoga guru once told an HBO interviewer that he doesn’t need to force himself on women because “famous, beautiful, rich women” line up for him and “people spend $1 million for one drop of my sperm.”

Today – after eight tumultuous years of litigation ups and downs – plaintiff Jill Lawler achieved some vindication in her case against the Choudhury. Due to Choudhury and his Yoga College’s repeated and willful discovery failures, refusal to follow the rules, terminating sanctions and default judgment were entered against Choudhury and his now defunct College in the amount of $9,182,587.52.
After several verdicts and defaults against him in the range of tens of millions of dollars, Choudhury fled the country in 2016 and took painstaking efforts to abscond with his fortune and hide his assets as best possible. The next year, his College filed bankruptcy.

Thus, Lawler’s only avenue of recovery are insurance policies, such as those issued by AIG subsidiaries. They, however, have offered Lawler $50,000, given her claims and the lasting damage Choudhury caused. While terminating sanctions have eliminated the need for a jury in Lawler’s matter, the jury is out in terms of the propriety of the behavior of such insurance companies.

Lawler is currently represented by Carney Shegerian and William Reed of Shegerian & Associates. “This has been a long road, and while it is a small victory for all sexual assault victims everywhere, and the many, many women who have suffered at the hands of Bikram Choudhury, Jill will never be made whole,” said Reed.

Case # BC572579
Superior Court of The State of California
For the City of Los Angeles

Manuela Varela
Shegerian & Associates
+1 949-554-4342
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