Tiffany Haddish (L) at the premiere of “Easter Sunday” held at TCL Chinese Theatre on August 2, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. Comedian Aries Spears (R) performs at The Stress Factory Comedy Club on May 19, 2022 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Mark Von Holden/Variety via Getty Images and Bobby Bank/Getty Images Comedians Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears are being accused of child sex abuse in a lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that they abused two underage siblings separately on two occasions. Haddish and Spears’ lawyers have dismissed the allegations as “bogus” and a “shakedown. ” Comedians Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears have been accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl and her 7-year-old brother, according to a Tuesday lawsuit seen by Insider.
The lawsuit, first reported by The Daily Beast, accuses the actors of encouraging each sibling to perform sexually suggestive acts on camera. The complaint was filed pro se — or without the official help of a legal counsel — by an anonymous Jane Doe, now 22, on behalf of herself and her younger brother John Doe, now 15. They adopted pseudonyms because they were underage at the time of the incidents that Jane alleges in her complaint.
Representatives for Spears and Haddish have dismissed the allegations, according to a statement sent to Insider and media reports. The lawsuit alleges two separate incidents in which it said Jane and John where individually abused. Alleged Incident #1Haddish had been close to the siblings and their mother, according to The Daily Beast.
The suit alleges that in 2013, Haddish approached Jane while she was attending a comedy summer camp. Jane was 14 and, the lawsuit said, Haddish told her she’d found “a perfect role” for her in a commercial. The complaint said Haddish and Spears then brought Jane to a Hollywood studio and asked her to watch a video depicting a man suggestively eating a sub sandwich from opposite ends.
The lawsuit compared it to a scene from the animated film “The Lady and the Tramp. “However, the pair on camera “were moaning and making sexual noises as they both ate the sandwich in a manner that simulated the act of fellatio,” the lawsuit said. The filing claims that Spears told Jane that “he wanted her to mimic what she had seen on the screen, including the noises precisely like what she heard throughout the video.
“The suit said Jane was “nervous and disgusted” and didn’t say anything until Haddish brought her to another room and showed her how to mimic the acts Spears had requested. The lawsuit said that Jane complied “so she could go home. ” It added that she was paid $100 and sent home.
Jane told The Daily Beast that she didn’t tell her mother about the incident. “I didn’t confide to nobody else about how weird I felt at that moment,” she told the outlet. Alleged Incident #2Jane’s lawsuit also accuses Haddish and Spears of molesting John when he was 7 years old.
In 2014, the suit alleges, Haddish told John’s family that he would be filmed as a part of a Nickelodeon sizzle reel filmed at Spears’ Los Angeles home, but that the boy instead ended up in a video called “Through A Pedophiles Eyes. “The lawsuit alleges that the video depicted Spears “lusting over the 7-year-old child and molesting him through the video. ” It accused Haddish of being present during the filming of the entire video and aiding and abetting Spears.
The suit describes the video and includes several screenshots seen by Insider. The images appear to be excerpts of the video mentioned. The photos include that of a man licking his lips as he peers at a young boy in underwear, and of Spears spraying baby oil onto the boy’s back and massaging it into his shoulders.
They also include stills from a scene where the roles are reversed and the boy is seen rubbing baby oil on Spears’ nude upper torso, as well as another scene where Spears lies in a bathtub with the nude boy, as written in the suit. Per the lawsuit, the video ends with a caption: “Watch you who leave your kids with!” According to the suit, John cried to his mother when they reunited after the filming, saying he did not want to film anymore. Siblings claim damage to mental health and social livesIn a written statement as part of the lawsuit, the now-15-year-old wrote that the incident had left him unable to trust adults and find friends.
“I don’t got no friends, I don’t trust nobody, I’m scared of adults, I refuse to be recorded or take pictures because I am scared of weird-ass adults trying to do nasty stuff to me again,” he wrote. Similarly, Jane told The Daily Beast that her encounter had affected her social life, and that her brother puts band-aids over cameras of his electronics for fear of being recorded or spied on. Both siblings have been in therapy since the alleged incidents, her lawsuit said.
It said Jane and John’s mother reached a settlement with Spears in 2018 for $15,000. However, the lawsuit states the siblings were not represented in the settlement and that they are now pursuing their own legal action to also sue Haddish. Jane is also currently John’s legal guardian, the lawsuit said.
In response to the lawsuit, Andrew Brettler, lawyer for Haddish, told Insider in a statement that the plaintiff’s mother had been “trying to assert these bogus claims against Ms. Haddish for several years. “”Every attorney who has initially taken on her case — and there were several — ultimately dropped the matter once it became clear that the claims were meritless and Ms.
Haddish would not be shaken down,” Brettler wrote. “The two of them will together face the consequences of pursuing this frivolous action,” he added. Debra Opri, who represents Spears, told the LA Times on Thursday that Spears “isn’t going to fall for any shakedown.
“Opri did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. Read the original article on Insider.
From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/tiffany-haddish-aries-spears-accused-child-sex-abuse-lawsuit-2022-9
