A former 'SNL' intern says Horatio Sanz tried to touch her breasts in the early 2000s

• A former "Saturday Night Live" staffer said Horatio Sanz asked to touch her breasts at a party in the 1999-2000 season.
• The alleged incident took place at an "SNL" after-after party when the former staffer was an intern.

One night in the late 1990s or early 2000s, a "Saturday Night Live" intern attended a party for "SNL" at a fellow staffer's apartment.

It was at these after-after-parties — which didn't typically start until the official after-party wrapped around 3 a.m. — where the cast and crew really let loose, according to several people who attended.

At one point that night, Horatio Sanz, a cast member who was in his 30s at the time, put on a leather glove and started joking that it covered a fake hand. The former intern said that when she left the apartment's living area and went into a bedroom, Sanz followed her, closed the door, and asked whether he could touch her breasts with his gloved hand.

"I have a fake hand under this glove," she recalled Sanz saying. "I'm so self-conscious about it — the only way I'll know if it feels real is if I can touch your boob."

The former intern told Insider she was "shocked" and didn't know how to react. She said she tried to laugh off Sanz's comment and went back to the party.

Another person at the party that night remembered the former intern telling her about the encounter with Sanz. The partygoer also recalled Sanz doing the same thing with other young women in the living room. "He kept saying: 'Must touch boobies. Must touch boobies,'" she said. "That was kind of the shtick."

The incident stuck with the former intern. "You look back and realize, I wasn't one of the people at the party having fun with my friends," she said. "I was a joke. I was an expendable girl that was just around to take that kind of abuse."

The early aughts were boom years for "Saturday Night Live." Emerging from the "deep spiritual funk" of the '90s, the show saw renewed critical acclaim and soaring viewership, all of which was cause for celebration. As one writer put it to The New York Times in 2001: "The ratings are up. So the party's hot again." The "SNL" after-parties — and the rowdy after-after-parties — became known as much for their debauchery as for their celebrity guests. A similar high-flying mood pervaded the show's 30 Rock offices, where writing sessions regularly lasted late into the night.

But for the young women who worked on the show — the interns and NBC pages who had fought for their coveted positions — this environment could be treacherous. It was in this same time period that Sanz allegedly sexually assaulted a 17-year-old fan. In August the fan, who is now in her 30s, filed a lawsuit against Sanz, NBC, and "SNL."

The accuser, who attended "SNL" tapings and after-parties from 2000 to 2002, said Sanz kissed one of her cheeks and put his hands on her waist the first time they met in person, when she was 15. The next year, she says, he began sending her sexually explicit online messages and repeatedly asked for photos of her. The woman told The Daily Beast that while Sanz is the focus of her lawsuit, "he didn't abuse me in a vacuum; he abused me all over 'Saturday Night Live.'" Sanz didn't respond to a request for comment from Insider. His attorney, Andrew Brettler, previously denied the accusations, telling TMZ that Sanz's team "will vigorously contest these totally meritless claims."

You can read our full story here: Young female 'SNL' staffers say they were treated like 'a joke,' with sexual advances, babysitting requests, and an unsolicited nude photo