Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears are no longer facing a child sexual abuse lawsuit after the plaintiff dropped her case. Jane Doe, whose anonymity is protected by the specifics of her allegations, filed a notice of dismissal on Sept. 20. “My family and I have known Tiffany Haddish for many years – and we now know that she would never harm me or my brother or help anyone else do anything that could harm us,” she said in a statement to TMZ. “We wish Tiffany the best and are glad that we can all put this behind us.”
A lawsuit filed by Doe on Aug. 30 alleged Haddish and Spears exploited her and her brother during the sketch “Through a Pedophile’s Eyes.” According to the dropped lawsuit, Haddish and Spears intentionally caused emotional distress and committed gross negligence, sexual battery, sexual harassment, and sexual abuse of a minor. The videos were shot in 2013 when the children involved were 14 and 7.
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Despite Jane Doe dropping the molestation lawsuit, the Girls Trip star told TMZ on Wednesday that it has cost her “all my gigs.” Haddish told their cameras at LAX: “I lost everything. My gigs are gone.” The comedian may have been kidding, but she still has two movies in post-production – Disney’s Haunted Mansion and Landscape with Invisible Hand. Also, earlier this year, she was confirmed to return for Season 2 of Apple’s The Afterparty.
“I know people have a bunch of questions,” Haddish commented on social media in early September, expressing “regret” over being a part of the sketch. “I get it. I’m right there with you. Unfortunately, because there is an ongoing legal case, there’s very little that I can say right now. But, clearly, while this sketch was intended to be comedic, it wasn’t funny at all — and I deeply regret having agreed to act in it. I really look forward to being able to share a lot more about this situation as soon as I can.”
“Plaintiff’s mother…has been trying to assert these bogus claims against Ms. Haddish for several years,” Haddish’s attorney Andrew Brettler said in a statement to TMZ. “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, [the mother] has her adult daughter representing herself in this lawsuit. The two of them will together face the consequences of pursuing this frivolous action.” In an episode of his podcast, It Hit the Fan, Spears said he was “no coward” and “not guilty of anything.”
