Tiffany Haddish, Aries Spears call lawsuit claims of child sexual abuse a ‘shakedown’
A 22-year-old lady and her 14-year-old brother allege in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that comedians Tiffany Haddish, 42, and Aries Spears, 47, groomed and sexually abused them throughout their childhoods.
The siblings — going by the names Jane Doe and John Doe — are suing the pair for reportedly getting them to behave in specific skits when Jane was 14 and John was 7 that, in flip, “traumatized them for all times.”
The lawsuit additionally claims that John was “groomed and molested” by each defendants.
Within the lawsuit, Spears and Haddish are each accused of intentional infliction of emotional misery, gross negligence, sexual battery, sexual harassment and sexual abuse of a minor.
Haddish can also be accused of negligent supervision/failure to warn, breach of fiduciary responsibility, and constructive fraud. The lawsuit seeks basic and particular damages, in addition to “any applicable statutory damages.”
Haddish’s lawyer, Andrew Brettler, stated in a press release to The Publish that the lawsuit incorporates “bogus” allegations.
He stated that the plaintiff’s mom “has been attempting to claim these bogus claims towards Ms. Haddish for a number of years. Each lawyer who has initially taken on her case — and there have been a number of — finally dropped the matter as soon as it grew to become clear that the claims had been meritless and Ms. Haddish wouldn’t be shaken down.” He added that her mom “has her grownup daughter representing herself on this lawsuit. The 2 of them will collectively face the implications of pursuing this frivolous motion.”
When contacted by The Publish, Spears’ lawyer, Debra Opri, responded: “He isn’t going to fall for any shakedown.”
The kids’s mother initially was on the comedy circuit when she befriended Haddish, according to a report in the Daily Beast. The lawsuit claims that the children went on to name “Aunty Tiff” and that she referred to them “as her nephew and niece.”
Whereas at a comedy camp in 2013, Haddish is alleged to have requested their mom if Jane may movie a skit, however solely she and Spears knew its plot, the lawsuit states.
Jane reportedly shot a video that included a Subway sandwich, during which coeds had been instructed to start out “moaning and making sexual noises as they each ate the sandwich in a way that simulated the act of fellatio” from reverse sides of the sub.
“Haddish verbally defined what was anticipated of Plaintiff Jane Doe after which confirmed Plaintiff Jane Doe give fellatio, together with actions, noises, moaning, and groaning,” the lawsuit claims.
In 2014, the “Ladies Journey” star allegedly approached the youngsters’s mom once more to recruit John for what she stated could be a reel to get him on Nickelodeon. Nonetheless, per the lawsuit, John ended up filming a video posted on “Humorous Or Die” and different on-line platforms, titled “By way of A Pedophile’s Eyes.”
Haddish performed the boy’s guardian within the skit and her character left him with Spears — who performed a pedophile, in response to the lawsuit.
“The video was entitled ‘By way of A Pedophiles Eyes’ and exhibits Spears lusting over the 7-year-old youngster and molesting him all through the video. Haddish was current throughout the filming of your entire video and aided, abetted, and watched Spears sexually molest a baby,” in response to the lawsuit.
“The molestation video was uploaded and revealed to the web site ‘Humorous Or Die’ in 2014 and was not faraway from the web till Could 2021,” the paperwork state.
In keeping with a press release from “Humorous Or Die” to TMZ, the comedy platform was not concerned in making the video. “Humorous Or Die discovered this video completely disgusting and would by no means produce such content material. We weren’t concerned with the conceptualization, improvement, funding, or manufacturing of this video,” they stated. “It was uploaded to the location as user-generated content material and was eliminated in 2018 instantly after changing into conscious of its existence.”
