Ricky García wins a $6.5 million judgment in a lawsuit against a former manager who was found responsible for sexually abusing the Disney star and member of the boy band Forever In Your Mind since she was 12

The former manager of the boyband Forever In Your Mind, Ricky García, has been found responsible for sexually abusing the singer.

Garcia, 25, said his former manager Joby Harte, 42, raped and sexually assaulted him “dozens of times” during his preteen and teen years, and that the abuse occurred “weekly” after his 16th birthday.

A Los Angeles jury found Harte liable for child sexual abuse, gender-based violence and intentional infliction of emotional distress on Friday, Garcia’s attorney, Michael S. Popok, told DailyMail.com.

Harte received a $6.5 million judgment, including punitive damages.

“A California jury sent a clear and forceful message that sexual predators, especially in the entertainment industry, will not be tolerated and that their victims can find some justification for their lives in the American justice system,” Popok said.

“Our client, Mr. Garcia, wept openly in court as the jury returned its verdict, beginning a healing process for him that has been more than a decade in the making.”

The former star of Disney Channel’s Best Friends Whenever said on her Instagram Story, “Thank you to my incredible attorneys for working tirelessly for justice.”

“Beyond grateful for my team who stood firm in the truth.”

The ruling is part of a long legal battle that began in 2019 when Garcia, then 20 years old, first sued her former manager and several other music industry executives, citing years of sexual abuse that began when she was alone. I was 12 years old.

Garcia said Harte groomed him from an early age to be a “sex toy that he could pass around among his friends in the business,” including his associates, former APA agent Tyler Grasham and managing producer Nils Larsen.

‘(Harte) focused on an economically and emotionally vulnerable preteen and his parents. “She then groomed and seduced the child’s mother into lowering her defenses and giving him unlimited access to her son, making her an unwitting accomplice to her depravity,” the initial complaint said.

According to Garcia’s attorneys, Harte, owner of Hot Rock Media, allegedly started slowly with his apparent fitness techniques, which included occasionally talking to Garcia about his own sexuality and sexual history, before showing him pornography and urging him to try it. his sex toys.

However, the subtle advances later culminated ‘with Harte getting (Garcia) drunk, stripping him naked and raping him,’ the actor said.

Over the next few years, with his “defenses and psyche in tatters,” Harte began abusing his client on a weekly basis, as well as leaving him “available” for Grasham and Larsen to abuse as well.

On one specific occasion, Harte is said to have hosted a two-night ‘writing session’ on Catalina Island in 2014, without Garcia’s parents present.

Garcia said Harte intoxicated him with a tequila and vodka cocktail before passing out and waking up hours later in Harte’s bed.

Upon asking his manager what happened, Harte apparently responded that she had undressed him and bathed him because he had vomited everywhere before passing out.

On his 17th birthday, Garcia said he was taking a shower at a hotel when Harte entered the bathroom and forced the teen to masturbate him until he ejaculated.

Grasham has been accused by Garcia of making sexually suggestive comments towards him and licking his toes, while Larsen is said to have grabbed his penis over his pants during a concert in 2016.

In the complaint, Garcia says he didn’t tell anyone about his experiences until March 2018 because he feared speaking out would ruin his career and cause him to lose friends and bandmates.

The band Forever in Your Mind was formed in 2013 when Garcia was excluded from the X Factor boot camp round and asked by Simon Cowell to join a group.

Garcia went on to act in the Netflix film Finding ‘Ohana and married his wife Alli Nadine Garcia in 2023.