Judge Dismisses Abuse Lawsuit Against Sam Altman Over Missed Medical Exam

U.S. District Judge Zachary Bluestone dismissed Ann Altman’s civil lawsuit accusing her brother, OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman, of childhood sexual abuse. The order was entered on October 20, 2026.

The dismissal was with prejudice, which means the case is closed at the trial court and normally cannot be filed again. It was not a ruling on the merits. The court ordered dismissal because Ann Altman repeatedly failed to appear for a court-ordered independent medical examination, an assessment by a neutral doctor used when claimed injuries are at issue Engadget.

Bluestone had warned her in advance that skipping the examination would lead to dismissal. The court later described her noncompliance as “willful” discovery violations, a term for failures in the formal exchange of information and evidence Anadolu Agency. That finding gave the court the procedural basis to end the case.

Ann Altman filed the action in January 2025. She alleged that Sam Altman sexually abused her as a child at the family’s Missouri home between 1997 and 2006. The complaint said the abuse began when she was three and he was 12, with the last instance occurring when he was an adult. A later pleading described the allegations as sexual abuse and rape at various times during that period at the family home.

The case went through several procedural steps before dismissal. In March, Bluestone ruled that Ann Altman’s original sexual assault and battery claims had expired years earlier. He allowed her to refile under a Missouri childhood sexual abuse law. She then amended her complaint to restate allegations dating back more than two decades. Sam Altman filed a motion to dismiss and separately sought dismissal of the punitive damages claims. The court’s dismissal memorandum stated that a separate order of dismissal would accompany it.

The litigation also involved changes in representation and related claims. Ann Altman lost her lawyers during the proceedings. Her former lawyer Santos Perez withdrew from the case in October Engadget. On the defense side, Bluestone approved Sam Altman’s request to withdraw a defamation counterclaim against his sister.

Sam Altman has denied the sexual abuse allegations. After the initial filing, he, his mother and his two younger brothers issued a joint statement calling the allegations “entirely untrue.”

In procedural terms, dismissal with prejudice ends this action at the trial court level and generally bars refiling of the same claims. It does not resolve the underlying factual dispute. Courts treat a court-ordered medical examination as a discovery obligation, particularly where a plaintiff seeks damages tied to claimed physical or psychological injury. Refusal to comply, after warning, can lead to the sanction imposed here.

The broader context here is important for a technology audience to keep separate from OpenAI coverage. The docket concerned alleged personal conduct from 1997 to 2006, not OpenAI’s products, research or corporate governance. The decisive issue became compliance with discovery, not testimony, documents or a jury assessment of credibility. That distinction leaves no judicial finding about what occurred, only a final judgment that the case cannot proceed on this record.