17:44 PST 3/2/2021
in
Katie Kilkenny
The lawsuit was filed in the name of Jane Doe, who was 17 at the time of the alleged misconduct.
Chris D’Elia was accused on Tuesday of sexually exploiting a minor and requesting child pornography in a federal lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Jane Doe in a US District Court for the Central District of California, states that in 2014, D’Elia, then 34, sexually abused Doe while she was 17 and demanded explicit sex images of her after meeting her on social media. A D’Elia spokesman said, “Chris denies these charges and will defend himself vigorously in court.”
According to the lawsuit, D’Elia met Doe after she sent him a direct message on Instagram and he invited her to go to a comedy show. Before meeting, D’Elia allegedly asked for the defendant’s information on Snapchat and, after some initial messages, asked for a nude photo. According to the suit, he continually asked for photos and Doe eventually sent him 5-10 nude photos before they met in person.
When they finally met before a show at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, Doe brought a friend to meet D’Elia in his hotel room, but D’Elia was not supposed to open the hotel door until the friend was gone. . During that first meeting, D’Elia “instructed Mrs. Doe to get up on the floor, take off her shoes and pants and give her oral sex” and “approximately ten minutes after she arrived at her hotel room, Defendant D ‘ Elia had sex with Ms. Doe, “according to the complaint. Doe told D’Elia that she was 17 and was in high school, the suit says. They had another sexual encounter after the show, according to the complaint.
After the meeting, Doe says D’Elia requested more explicit images and, in total, she sent him “more than 100 sexually explicit photos and videos” in six or seven months, with half of them sent while Doe was a minor. After 2015, Doe reportedly broke off most of the contact and blocked him on Snapchat in 2017.
Doe is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and an injunction that would prevent him from owning or taking any action with Doe’s photos. (Read the complaint below.)
After several women posted allegations of sexual misconduct against D’Elia in the summer of 2020, CAA dismissed the comedian as a client and Netflix dismissed an impromptu program that was created to co-star D’Elia. Tig Notaro also ended up replacing D’Elia in Zack Snyder’s zombie movie Army of the Dead. D’Elia denied the allegations, saying in a statement: “I have never intentionally pursued any underage women at any time”.