A Los Angeles judge has approved a $3 million settlement for Emily Willis, closing one part of a case that followed the rehab treatment where she suffered an irreversible brain injury after her brain was deprived of oxygen in 2024.
The approval matters because Willis, whose legal name is Litzy Lara Banuelos, is no longer able to manage her own affairs. Court filings say she cannot move her body and only occasionally opens her eyes or grunts, which is why Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Susan Bryant-Deason had to sign off on the settlement before it could take effect.
The money resolves claims brought by Willis and her mother, Yesenia Lara Cooper, against Summit Malibu. Before the agreement was finalized, the legal team cut requested attorney fees from $1.2 million to $1 million, and the settlement was approved on Willis’ behalf by Judge Bryant-Deason.
The case has always turned on what happened inside Summit Malibu in 2024, and that question remains only partly answered. The lawsuit accused the centre of failing to provide appropriate care and said its negligence, abandonment and recklessness caused Willis’ permanent incapacity. Summit Malibu denied wrongdoing. In court filings, the facility said Willis repeatedly refused medical advice, declined prescribed medications and rejected recommendations to go to urgent care or a hospital, and argued staff had no legal authority to force her outside for treatment. It also said there was no evidence employees acted negligently and that she was regularly monitored throughout her stay.
Her attorney, James A. Morris Jr., said she probably has locked in syndrome, a condition that would leave her aware but unable to move or speak in the usual way. That assessment fits the bleak picture in the filings, but it does not answer the central medical gap: what specifically caused the oxygen deprivation that damaged her brain in the first place.
Willis, now 27, was once one of the best-known performers in the adult film industry. As Emily Willis, she was named Penthouse Pet of the Month in May 2019 and won multiple Adult Video News awards. The settlement brings a legal chapter to a close, but it does not change the harder reality at the centre of the case: she remains profoundly incapacitated, and the question of whether she will ever recover any meaningful ability to communicate or move is still unresolved.
