Woman files to dismiss lawsuit against Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears
LOS ANGELES – A woman who accused comedians Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears of forcing her and a brother to record sexually explicit skits when they were children filed a motion Tuesday to dismiss the claim. Filed.
The first page of the filing, obtained by NBC News, asks the U.S. District Court for Central California to dismiss her lawsuit with prejudice, which means it cannot be refiled. No reason was given on the first page for the withdrawal move.
The woman identified in the original lawsuit as Jane Doe did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement to TMZ“We’re glad we can all put this behind us,” he said Tuesday.
“My family and I have known Tiffany Haddish for many years – and we know now that she would never harm me or my brother or help anyone else who was harmed,” the statement read. can.”
Attorneys for Haddish did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representatives for Spears also did not respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit, filed Aug. 30 in Los Angeles County Superior Court and moved to federal court a week and a half later, alleges Haddish and Spears forced the estranged siblings to participate in sexually explicit skits. When they were children. His participation, he claims, “stole the youth of a 7-year-old and a 14-year-old.”
Jane Doe, 22, filed the lawsuit on behalf of herself and her younger brother, who is still a minor.
Six days after the filing of the case, Posted by Hadesh. a Message on Instagram Lamenting his role in one of the comic pieces.
“While this sketch was intended to be funny, it wasn’t funny at all — and I deeply regret agreeing to act in it,” Haddish said in the Sept. 5 post.
According to the lawsuit, the siblings’ mother had a close relationship with Haddish, star of “Girls Trip” and several other films, when they were both children.
In 2013, Haddish appeared as a guest speaker at a summer camp Jane Doe attended as a 14-year-old, the suit says. It was then that Haddish said she had the “perfect role” for the young man, the claim alleged.
The lawsuit alleges that the skit involved Haddish teaching Jane Doe how to imitate a fellatio on a sub sandwich.
The lawsuit also alleges that a year later, his brother appeared in a skit titled “Throw a Pedophile’s Eyes,” in which a boy was left with a man, known as “Mad T V” veteran Spears, who “teases the kid lustily” and gets into the bathtub with him.
According to the filing, the 7-year-old boy was stripped “down to his underwear” in most scenes.
Later, he called his mother to say he no longer wanted to participate, the suit said.
His mother repeatedly asked Spears and Haddish “what was filmed that made her son cry,” the suit alleges. Haddish said she would approach the mother about providing the unedited video but later said it was unusable and had been deleted, the lawsuit alleges.
About four years later, in June 2018, the mother learned of the content of the piece when it was published on the Fun and Die website, the filing said.
She declared that she would never allow her son to participate in a “pedophile child pornography skit”.
Funny and Die, an independent comedy studio, said the video was uploaded as user-generated content and was immediately removed when the studio learned about it. A spokesperson said in a statement this month that the platform found the video “absolutely offensive”.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from Haddish, 42, and Spears, 47, who starred together in the 2019 film “The Kitchen.”
The lawsuit alleges that as a result of the siblings’ participation in the comedy skits, they developed social disorders.
Lawyers for the celebrities have described the lawsuit as a shakeup of past statements.
Andrew Bretler, Haddish’s attorney, said Jane Doe’s mother “has been trying to push these false claims against Ms. Haddish for years.” He said Haddish “will not be moved.” Likewise, Spears’ attorney, Debra Opry, said that he “will not be subjected to any kind of upheaval.”
Jane Doe sent a letter This month, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon’s office is being asked to “arrest and prosecute” Haddish and Spears.