Comedian Chris D’Elia has been accused in a new lawsuit of soliciting pornography from a 17-year-old girl.
The plaintiff, who goes by the name of Jane Doe, claims in the civil suit filed yesterday that she met D’Elia in 2014 when she was 17 and he was 34. They first made contact via Instagram that September. To Doe’s surprise, D’Elia immediately responded to her direct message, a photo of her holding a teddy bear and laughing.
Soon after they made contact, D’Elia and Doe added each other on Snapchat. D’Elia allegedly sent her increasingly sexual messages, asking for nude photos. The suit claims that Doe sent D’Elia “approximately 5–10 sexually explicit photos and videos of herself before she met him in person.”
D’Elia was allegedly aware that Doe was in high school, as he commented on a photo that she posted of herself and a friend dressing up for their school’s “Spirit Day.”
The suit claims that D’Elia invited Doe to his Nov. 7 show at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut. She visited the comedian’s hotel room before he went on stage and they had sex. It was allegedly Doe’s first time having sex.
D’elia allegedly asked Doe several times during sex how old she was. She confirmed she was 17 and still in high school, which D’Elia called “hot.” The two had sex again after his show that night.
Doe’s attorney, Chloe Neely, emphasized to the Daily Dot that the lawsuit is “solely about the child pornographic images that Mr. D’Elia solicited, received, and viewed of our client.” Doe is not suing because the two allegedly had sex when she was 17, because the age of consent in Connecticut is 16. Federal child pornography laws, however, protect all minors under 18.
After their in-person encounter, D’Elia allegedly unfollowed Doe on Instagram and ignored her text message. He repeatedly re-followed and unfollowed her, threatening to unfollow if she did not comply with his requests for sexually explicit photos. The suit states that Doe sent D’Elia more than 100 sexually explicit photos and videos over the course of seven months.
Doe’s last correspondence was allegedly in 2019. The suit claims she was deeply disturbed to see D’Elia in the second season of Netflix’s You, in which he plays a standup comedian who preys on underage girls.
Last June, multiple women came forward to accuse D’Elia of making sexual advances when they were underage. Popular Twitter account @SheRatesDogs documented many of the allegations. Even the women who were of legal age when they met D’Elia accused him of blackmail and manipulation. D’Elia denied the accusations in a statement to TMZ, saying, “All of my relationships have been both legal and consensual and I have never met or exchanged any inappropriate photos with the people who have tweeted about me.”
Last month, D’Elia returned to YouTube to address the sexual misconduct and abuse allegations. He claimed he solicited “medical advice, therapy, and stuff like that” and concluded that “sex controlled my life.” People skewered the “apology” on social media, pointing out that D’Elia chalked up his accusations of being a serial sex abuser to a sex addiction.
A spokesperson for D’Elia has also denied the allegations made in the new lawsuit, telling TMZ, “Chris denies these allegations and will vigorously defend himself against them in court.”
In a statement to the Daily Dot, Doe adds, “Chris D’Elia abused his status and fame to lure me in, take advantage, and manipulate me when I was at a vulnerable age. I want any other girls out there to know that they are not alone, and it is time to get justice for the mental and physical toll he has put us through.”
H/T TMZ
