Tiffany Haddish, Aries Spears face lawsuit for alleged sexual child abuse

The lawsuit claims that the stand-up comics groomed and molested two people as minors for videotaped skits.

Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears are being sued for alleged child abuse. The two accusers claim that the two comedians assaulted them as minors several years ago.

The plaintiffs, siblings who are choosing to identify as Jane and John Doe, filed a lawsuit against Haddish and Spears in Los Angeles Superior Court this week, according to USA Today. Jane, 22, and John, 15, are accusing the entertainers of alleged sexual battery, sexual harassment and sexual abuse of a minor. Jane filed the lawsuit on behalf of herself and John.

Haddish lawyer Andrew Brettler denied the claims, saying “Plaintiff’s mother … has been trying to assert these bogus claims against Ms. Haddish for several years,” he said. “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.” 

Comedian-actress Tiffany Haddish was described as a “family friend” of the plaintiffs’ mother in a lawsuit accusing her and comic Aries Spears of child sexual abuse. Both have denied the allegations. (Photo by Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP, File)

Spears’ attorney Debra Opri also denied the allegations, stating that Spears “isn’t going to fall for any shakedown.”

The Does state in the suit that Haddish, described as a “longtime family friend” of their mother, groomed and molested them several times over the years, often on video. One such video was for a sketch posted on the YouTube comedy channel, “Funny or Die,” that the lawsuit described as a “soft porn molestation video of Mr. Doe.”

The sketch was on the channel until four years ago when “Funny or Die” took it down. The company issued a statement about the video:

“‘Funny Or Die’ found this video absolutely disgusting and would never produce such content. 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.”

One of the videos features three vignettes of Haddish giving the boy to Spears to be looked after. The first vignette features John, a small boy at the time, in only his underwear; the second vignette features the boy in a bathtub; the third video features Spears in his underwear as the boy looks at him.

2020 Adult Video News Awards - Show
Aries Spears’ lawyer said of the lawsuit that the comedian “isn’t going to fall for any shakedown.” (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Jane and John also accused Haddish and Spears of showing them how to simulate oral sex for a “sexually suggestive” commercial shoot back in 2013. The lawsuit states that both Jane and John Doe have experienced ongoing trauma, depression, and anxiety due to Haddish and Spears’ actions.

“The plaintiffs are both traumatized for life” the suit read. “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.”

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