Via Deadline, lawyers for Amazon MGM Studios, Criminal showrunner Ed Brubaker, and executive producer Phillip Barnett have responded to the lawsuit filed by series production assistant Ijaaz Noohu, asking that the suit be dropped on an array of factual and legal issues. Noohu’s suit, filed earlier this month, alleged Brubaker and other staff members on the upcoming Prime Video series had subjected him to sexual, racial and religious harassment, discrimination, assault, battery, and defamation.
The introduction to the lawyers’ demurrer claims Noohu asked Brubaker to retain and promote him to executive producer, and that the production had “six separate ways to report misconduct, including an anonymous hotline. He used none of them. Nor did anyone else report any harassment of Noohu. His contemporaneous emails and texts — including the one begging to keep working closely with Brubaker, his supposed harasser — breathe not a word of harassment, discrimination, or distress.”
It stresses, “His most sensational allegation — that Brubaker pointed a functional firearm at his face and pulled the trigger — is pure invention. Had that happened, every person in the room, Noohu included, had a duty to report it, and in a post-Rust industry on high alert to firearms, someone would have. No one did. Defendants first learned of the supposed incident when Noohu reemerged peddling the story and demanding a payday.”
The document’s introduction ends claiming the timing of the lawsuit “gives the game away. Noohu sat on these supposed claims for twenty months [after his employment ended in 2024] and filed suit on the eve of the press circuit for Criminal. That is the conduct of an opportunist timing his leverage, not a victim seeking redress. To be sure, the evidence will ultimately confirm that Noohu’s claims lack merit.”
You can read the full demurrer in the embedded link below, and Noohu’s initial filing here. A hearing is expected to be held in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County on Thursday, October 15. Since the lawsuit was filed, several comments have been posted to Deadline‘s initial story defending Brubaker, stating they worked with him and Noohu on Criminal, and repeatedly characterize the writer as being “kind,” while calling Noohu “entitled,” “arrogant,” and “rude”.
Criminal, based on the comic Brubaker created with Sean Phillips, does not have a release date at the time of writing, although the demurrer and previous statements from the showrunner indicate it will premiere by the end of 2026.
