Comedians Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears are being sued for sexual battery, sexual harassment and sexual abuse of a minor, reports Entertainment Weekly.
On Tuesday, the suit was filed in Superior Court for Los Angeles County by a woman identified as Jane Doe and on behalf of her brother, a minor, identified as John Doe.
According to the suit, the plaintiff claims that Haddish was "a longtime family friend" of her and John Doe's mother and that in 2013, when Jane Doe was 14, Haddish brought her to a the taping of a "sexually suggestive Subway commercial." The suit claims that Haddish said the commercial would “help Jane Doe get on television and would be included in the teenager's film reel.”
During the taping, Haddish allegedly told Jane Doe how to perform “inappropriate sexual acts after watching an older man and woman in a video.”
Another claim alleges Haddish offered to film clips of John Doe for an audition reel for Nickelodeon the next summer. She allegedly took him to Spears' home and the two "stripped the child down to his underwear" for a video titled Through a Pedophile's Eyes.
Jane Doe alleges in court documents that Haddish "groomed" the plaintiffs, leaving them "traumatized for life."
“Similar to the manner in which Giselle (sic) Maxwell groomed young girls for Jeffrey Epstein, upon information and belief, Haddish made Plaintiff Jane Doe feel comfortable and special, but this was all a grooming tactic by Haddish to entice and coerce both children into filming sexually explicit child pornography skits,” the lawsuit added.
In the aftermath of the alleged encounter, Jane and John Doe claim to suffer from social disorders, anxiety and depression.
The footage was shot for a Funny or Die project that the lawsuit describes as a "soft porn molestation video of Mr. Doe and was not removed from the media company's platforms until last May.
"Funny or Die found this video absolutely disgusting and would never produce such content," the company said in a statement. "We were not involved with the conceptualization, development, funding, or production of this video. It was uploaded to the site as user-generated content and was removed in 2018 immediately after becoming aware of its existence."
Both Haddish and Spears have vehemently deny all accusations levied against them.
"Plaintiff's mother, Trizah Morris, has been trying to assert these bogus claims against Ms. Haddish for several years," Haddish's lawyer Andrew Brettler said in a statement. "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."
"Now, Ms. Morris has her adult daughter representing herself in this lawsuit. The two of them will together face the consequences of pursuing this frivolous action,” the statement continued.
Spears' attorney also released a statement saying that his client "isn't going to fall for any shakedown."
