Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears, both comedians, have been accused of child sexual abuse.
The actors allegedly assaulted a pair of siblings named John Doe and Jane Doe in the filing when they were 7 and 14, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. The lawsuit was first reported on Thursday by The Daily Beast. According to the lawsuit, Haddish (“Girls Trip”) and Spears (“MADtv”) “groomed” and “molested” the plaintiffs, and some of the incidents were videotaped. Haddish’s attorney, Andrew Brettler, however, dismissed the allegations.
“Plaintiff’s mother, Trizah Morris, has been trying for several years to assert these bogus claims against Ms. Haddish,” he said in a statement to The Times. “Every attorney who initially took on her case, and there were several, dropped the matter once it became clear that the claims were without merit and Ms. Haddish would not be shaken down. “Ms. Morris is now represented in this lawsuit by her adult daughter.” They will have to face the consequences of their frivolous actions together. When contacted by The Times on Thursday, Spears’ attorney, Debra Opri, said, “He isn’t going to fall for any shakedown.”
At the heart of the suit are two separate incidents involving each of the siblings. Jane Doe claimed that in 2013, Spears and Haddish encouraged her to imitate fellatio movements for a skit. Jane Doe was 14 years old at the time. Then, in 2014, a 7-year-old John Doe was allegedly stripped naked and filmed for another skit starring both Haddish and Spears. “I don’t trust anyone, I’m afraid of adults, I refuse to be recorded or photographed because I’m afraid of… adults trying to do nasty stuff to me again. “I spend all of my time in my room and never leave because I don’t trust anyone.”
According to the lawsuit, Haddish visited the plaintiffs’ home on a regular basis as a “longtime family friend” of the siblings’ mother. The siblings also claim that Haddish drove John Doe to Spears’ house, where the comedian allegedly molested him. According to the filing, “the molestation video was uploaded and published to the website ‘Funny or Die in 2014 and was not removed from the internet until May 2021.” On Thursday, Funny or Die told TMZ that it had no involvement in the video.
“Funny Or Die” found this video absolutely disgusting and would never produce such content, the company said in a statement. “It was uploaded to the site as user-generated content and was removed in 2018 as soon as its existence was discovered.” According to the 31-page lawsuit, Jane Doe’s 2013 interaction with Spears and Haddish involved her mimicking the actions of a video in which a man and a woman ate sandwiches while “moaning and making sexual noises” in a way “that simulated the act of fellatio.” Haddish allegedly taught Jane Doe “how to give fellatio, including movements, noises, moaning, and groaning.”
Jane Doe was also said to have appeared in a “sexually suggestive” video. According to the lawsuit, the 2014 skit starring John Doe was intended to be a reel to help him land a job at Nickelodeon. According to the suit, in the skit titled “Through a Pedophile’s Eyes,” Spears was seen “lusting over the 7-year-old” who was in his underwear while Haddish was not onscreen. According to the suit, “after filming, Mr. Doe called his mother, crying, saying he did not want to film anymore.” The plaintiffs’ mother contacted Spears several times, requesting the footage. Spears allegedly claimed that he was still editing the video but that the “footage was unusable” and that he deleted it. Haddish stated that she didn’t have a copy.
In 2018, the children’s mother attempted but failed to reach a $15,000 settlement with Spears. In the new lawsuit, John Doe and Jane Doe accuse Haddish and Spears of gross negligence, sexual battery, sexual harassment, and sexual abuse of a minor. They seek a monetary award for “past, present, and future general damages,” the amount of which will be determined at trial.