Assault Case Against Oscar Winner Dustin Lance Black Dismissed By Judge
The assault case made against Dustin Lance Black has been dismissed.
Oscar winner Black, who is married to Olympic diver Tom Daley, was accused of assaulting events planner and TV personality Teddy Edwardes at a bar in Soho in August 2023.
The star of BBC Three’s The Big Pride Party Agency accused Black of twisting her wrist in the supposed altercation, after which she allegedly punched him in the head.
Appearing in court in April, he pleaded not guilty to the charges, which were thrown out during the trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
District Judge Louisa Ciecora told the court there was “an obvious contradiction” in Edwardes’ testimony, after first claiming she “could not remember a wrist grab” and later saying she was “sure that it did happen”.
The judge concluded she could “not properly convict” Black due to a lack of evidence.
Celebrating the “moment of exoneration”, Black told Variety outside the courtroom: “This case has flown in the face of everything that I am. I am very grateful to the judge for exonerating me.”
He also told The Hollywood Reporter: “I am pleased that the judge saw the truth today and ruled in my favour.
“As the evidence has proven, and I have always maintained, I am completely innocent, and in fact was the victim in this case of a serious assault.”
In his professional life, Black is best known for writing the critically acclaimed film Milk, which starred Sean Penn as the pioneering politician Harvey Milk, and earned the writer the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2009.
Black has also written for the TV shows When We Rise and Under The Banner Of Heaven, as well as the historical biopic J Edgar.
Outside of the film industry, Black is also known for his relationship with Tom Daley, to whom he’s been married since 2017.
In March, the couple welcomed a second son, who they have named Phoenix Rose, via a surrogate.
The couple were already parents to Robert Ray, known as Robbie, who was born in June 2018.