Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears have been accused of grooming and molesting two underage children for a Funny or Die sketch in 2013.
A lawsuit obtained by TMZ alleges that Haddish coerced a 14-year-old girl into starring in a sexually suggestive video in which the Girls Trip star taught her how to imitate performing fellatio. The girl claims her 7-year-old brother was taken to a home where the sketch, titled “Through a Pedophile’s Eyes,” was filmed. He was also allegedly molested by Haddish and Spears.
The two defendants, who have been identified in the suit as Jane and John Doe, have reportedly developed social disorders stemming from their alleged encounters with Haddish and Spears. Jane claims she avoids relationships out of fear that she will be taken advantage of and “led down a path of false trust like the path that Haddish led her down.” John alleges he has been so fearful of being watched or recorded that he places band-aids over every camera on his electronic devices.
Haddish’s attorney Andrew Brettler dismisses the lawsuit as an attempt to extort money from his client.
“Plaintiff’s mother, Trizah Morris, has been trying to assert these bogus claims against Ms. Haddish for several years,” Brettler said in a statement sent to Complex. “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, Ms. Morris has her adult daughter representing herself in this lawsuit. The two of them will together face the consequences of pursuing this frivolous action.”
The mother of the two children, who was allegedly friends with Haddish prior to filming the sketch, says she couldn’t reach a $15,000 settlement with Spears and moved forward with the lawsuit in pursuit of damages.
According to a piece written by Laura Bradley for Daily Beast, the lawsuit claims Haddish was a guest speaker at a comedy camp when she interacted with Jane Doe and allegedly told her the comedian had “a perfect role for her” in a commercial. When Jane arrived on set, she and her mother were reportedly unaware of the details of the commercial.
According to the suit, Spears and Haddish had Jane watch a seemingly harmless clip in a recording booth, which showed a group of co-eds arguing over a subway sandwich before it took a bizarre turn with the group “moaning and making sexual noises as they both ate the sandwich in a manner that simulated the act of fellatio.”
The lawsuit alleges Spears told her to “mimic what she had seen on the screen, including the noises precisely like what she heard throughout the video,” but she allegedly felt “nervous and disgusted” and became silent until Haddish spoke with her. “Haddish verbally explained what was expected of Plaintiff Jane Doe and then showed Plaintiff Jane Doe how to give fellatio, including movements, noises, moaning, and groaning,” the suit states.
Jane ended up fulfilling their expectations, but she told the Daily Beast that it “came out just super uncomfortable.” She was allegedly paid $100 for her participation.
Haddish reportedly spoke with their mother a year later, claiming she wanted to film a sizzle reel for Nickelodeon with her 7-year-old son. In actuality, he was filming a scene for “Through a Pedophile’s Eyes.”
With their mother away, Jane and John were separated while “Through a Pedophile’s Eyes” was filmed. Jane told the Daily Beast that Haddish’s behavior changed, saying, “It was like a whole 180 almost” and that “Tiffany had never been mean to me—never raised her voice to me—until this point.”
Jane was allegedly told by Haddish to stay on a couch downstairs while her brother, who was wearing nothing but underwear, remained upstairs. The suit says John called his mother crying once filming concluded, telling her “he did not want to film anymore.”
“Funny Or Die found this video absolutely disgusting and would never produce such content,” a rep for Funny Or Die said in response to the suit. “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.”
