Case of Bryan Singer
Los Angeles, CA
Former Student - New York School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
West Windsor, NJ
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Accused of sexually assaulting a teenager and is being sued. The young man stated that he and his mother attempted to make a police report with the Los Angeles Police Department and the FBI in late 1999 and 2000. The alleged survivor stated he was being abused by an underage sex ring.
According to The Associated Press, they do not typically name victims of sex abuse but is naming Egan because he spoke out publicly about his allegations.
Bryan Singer is an American film director and producer. He was born on September 17, 1965 in New York City. Singer, was adopted and grew up on West Windsor, NJ.
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Table of Contents:
2014
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Jewish Virtual Library
April 1, 2014
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‘X-Men’ director Bryan Singer hit by sex abuse lawsuit weeks before premiere
by Dana Feldman and Eric Kelsey
Jewish Journal - April 18, 2014
A man who has sued filmmaker Bryan Singer, the director of the upcoming blockbuster action film "X-Men: Days of Future Past," for allegedly raping him as a teenager said on Thursday that his claims of sexual abuse went unheeded by authorities.
(NAME REMOVED), 31, who was an aspiring teen actor, said he and his mother told the Los Angeles Police Department and the FBI in late 1999 and 2000 that (NAME REMOVED) was being abused by an underage sex ring.
"What happened was basically it fell on deaf ears," (NAME REMOVED) said a news conference seated next to his attorney, Jeff Herman. "We didn't get anywhere and then I basically buried it in me as deep as I possibly could."
Herman filed a civil lawsuit on Wednesday in federal court in Hawaii, alleging that Singer, 48, used his influence as a Hollywood insider as well as a range of drugs and alcohol to force anal and oral sex on (NAME REMOVED) while promising him film roles.
Singer's attorney, Marty Singer, has called the claims "completely fabricated." The LAPD said it does not comment on current litigation.
The lawsuit comes weeks before Singer's "X-Men" film opens in U.S. theaters on May 23. It could complicate the global promotion rollout for distributor 20th Century Fox by pushing the director's legal problem to the forefront of what is expected to be one of the year's top-grossing films.
The film starring Hugh Jackman and Jennifer Lawrence is projected to gross $103 million in its opening weekend, according to Boxoffice.com.
"We look forward to our bringing a claim for malicious prosecution against (NAME REMOVED) and his attorney after we prevail," Singer's attorney said in a statement after the news conference.
(NAME REMOVED) said he brought the suit now after going through trauma therapy, which he began 11 months ago.
"I was raped numerous times in that house by numerous individuals," (NAME REMOVED) said. "You were like a piece of meat to these people. They'd pass you around between them."
FOX CALLS CASE 'PERSONAL MATTER'
Singer, who directed "X-Men" in 2000 and its sequel "X2" in 2003, is also signed on to direct the next installment in the franchise, "X-Men: Apocalypse," for Fox. The film is scheduled to be released in 2016.
"These are serious allegations, and they will be resolved in the appropriate forum," Fox said in a statement. "This is a personal matter, which Bryan Singer and his representatives are addressing separately."
(NAME REMOVED) seeks unspecified damages and a jury trial after wide-ranging abuses at California and Hawaii house parties beginning in the late 1990s, according to the civil action.
"Mike was being influenced by wanting to be in the business," Herman said. The attorney added that the lawsuit was filed now because in Hawaii legal limitations require a civil child sex abuse case to be filed by April 24.
"Hollywood moguls have been using their positions of authority to exploit children sexually," said Herman, who is noted for his representation of sex abuse victims, having filed suits against the Roman Catholic Church and Kevin Clash, the former voice of Sesame Street character Elmo.
The lawsuit accuses Marc Collins-Rector, a former entertainment business executive and registered sex offender, of initiating the sexual abuse by arranging for Singer to meet (NAME REMOVED) t "notorious parties" in Encino, California, around 1998.
(NAME REMOVED) alleged liquor would be poured down his throat at the parties and that Collins-Rector once threatened him by putting a gun in his mouth. Collins-Rector could not be reached for comment and is not listed as a defendant in the suit.
Editing by Mary Milliken and Ken Wills
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Lawyer: Director not in Hawaii during alleged acts
By Oskar Garcia
Associated Press - April 18, 2014
HONOLULU (AP) - Credit card receipts, telephone records and production schedules show that "X-Men" franchise director Bryan Singer was not in Hawaii when a lawsuit claims he sexually abused a 17-year-old on the islands, a defense attorney said Friday.
Singer was mainly in Toronto working on the first "X-Men" movie from August through October 1999, defense attorney Marty Singer told The Associated Press.
A lawsuit filed by a former child model, Michael Egan III, says Bryan Singer abused him several times over those three months as well as earlier in California as part of a Hollywood sex ring led by another man convicted of luring minors across state lines for sex.
"This was Bryan's first studio film," Marty Singer said. "Clearly, he's not going to take a break in the middle of this movie while you're shooting and prepping it to go to Hawaii."
Egan's lawyer, Jeff Herman, did not immediately respond to phone calls seeking comment.
Egan said Thursday that he was abused by Bryan Singer and others starting when he was 15. He said he was given drugs and promises of a Hollywood career while being threatened and sexually abused in Los Angeles and Hawaii.
The AP does not typically name victims of sex abuse but is naming Egan because he is speaking publicly about his allegations.
Marty Singer, who said previously that he and the director are not related, declined to provide any of the personal records, saying they were private.
He said the filming records were available publicly but 20th Century Fox did not immediately return a phone call and email seeking comment.
"X-Men" was released in July 2000. Singer has directed three films in the blockbuster franchise, including the fifth installment, "X-Men: Days of Future Past," to be released next month, as well as other films including "The Usual Suspects."
His lawyer said the director was never interviewed by any authorities about the claims by Egan, who said Thursday he reported the Los Angeles acts and doesn't know why charges were not pursued.
The lawsuit was filed under a Hawaii law that temporarily suspends the statute of limitations in sex abuse cases. The law has led to several lawsuits against clergy members and others.
A judge in Hawaii set a July 21 scheduling hearing in Honolulu for the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday.
AP Entertainment Writer Anthony McCartney contributed to this report from Los Angeles.
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Lawsuit accuses entertainment figures of sex abuse
By Anthony McCartney
Associated Press - April 21, 2014
A man who has accused "X-Men" director Bryan Singer of sexually abusing him when he was a teen sued three more entertainment industry figures Monday, claiming they also molested him.
The allegations in the latest lawsuits filed by Michael Egan III are substantially similar to his legal action against Singer. That lawsuit accuses the director of abusing him between the ages of 15 and 17 in Los Angeles and Hawaii.
Monday's lawsuits were filed in federal court in Hawaii against former Fox television executive Garth Ancier, theater producer Gary Wayne Goddard, and David A. Neuman, a former television executive with Current TV and Disney.
Alan Grodin, an attorney for Goddard, said the executive was out of the country and had not seen the lawsuit.
"Based on what we have heard, the allegations are without merit," Grodin wrote in a statement. "Once we have seen the complaint we will respond appropriately."
Ancier did not respond to phone and email messages seeking comment.
Neuman could not be reached for comment. Phone numbers associated with him have been disconnected, and he did not immediately respond to a message sent through the social networking site LinkedIn.
The lawsuits were filed in Hawaii under a law that temporarily suspends the statute of limitations in civil sex abuse cases.
Singer's attorney, Marty Singer, has denied the director abused Egan, calling the allegations defamatory. He has said the director was not in Hawaii when Egan says he was abused and was instead working on production for the first "X-Men" film.
None of the men has been criminally charged, and the statute of limitations for any such charges has passed.
Ancier was the founding programmer at the Fox network, later going on to create programming for The WB, and was a top executive at NBC Entertainment.
Egan, 31, appeared at a news conference Monday alongside his mother, who tearfully described her efforts to report alleged abuses to the FBI in 1999 and 2000.
Bonnie Mound said she wrote several letters to FBI agents in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., urging them to take action. She questioned why those letters and information her son provided in interviews with an agent did not result in criminal charges.
The FBI has said it could not discuss specifically what Egan told them, however, the agency denied last week that it had ignored any information about Singer.
"The suggestion that the FBI ignored a minor victim, or evidence involving the sexual victimization of a child, is ludicrous," FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said in a statement. She reiterated the statement after Egan's news conference Monday.
Mound denied her son's lawsuits were motivated by anything other than holding the defendants accountable.
"It's not about money," Mound said, breaking down in tears.
Egan said he spent several years masking his pain by drinking. He stopped drinking within the past year, entered therapy and sought out a lawyer who would pursue a case.
The Associated Press does not typically name victims of sex abuse but is naming Egan because he is speaking publicly about his allegations.
Egan's attorney, Jeff Herman, said he had spent six months investigating before filing the lawsuits but acknowledged he didn't have all the investigative files or Singer's records that might show the director wasn't in Hawaii during the timeframe. Herman said he has asked Singer's lawyers for those records.
Egan claims he was lured into a sex ring run by a former digital entertainment company executive, Marc Collins-Rector, with promises of auditions for acting, modeling and commercial jobs. He was put on the company's payroll as an actor and forced to have sex with adult men at parties within Hollywood's entertainment industry, the lawsuit said.
Collins-Rector pleaded guilty in 2004 to transporting five minors across state lines to have sex.
Phone numbers listed for Collins-Rector have been disconnected and attempts to reach him for comment last week were unsuccessful. Records maintained in Florida, where Collins-Rector is required to register as a sex offender, show that in 2008 his last known address was in the Dominican Republic.
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Ex-Fox exec denies allegations in sex abuse suit
By Oskar Garcia
Associated Press - April 22, 2014
A former Fox television executive on Tuesday denied allegations that he sexually abused a teen through a sex ring involving underage children.
Louise Ann Fernandez, a lawyer for Garth Ancier, said all the allegations made by Michael Egan III in a federal lawsuit filed in Hawaii are untrue.
Fernandez said Ancier has never visited the estate in Hawaii where Egan claims he was molested.
"We are confident the courts will agree when the evidence is presented," Fernandez said.
Egan made similar allegations last week when he sued "X-Men" director Bryan Singer.
Ancier and two other executives were sued Monday. The lawsuits say Egan was forced into sex during parties in California and Hawaii when he was 15 to 17 years old. Egan is now 31.
The Associated Press does not typically name victims of sex abuse but is naming Egan because he is speaking publicly about his allegations.
Ancier was a founding programmer at Fox who later created programming for The WB and was a top executive at NBC Entertainment. Egan also sued theater producer Gary Wayne Goddard and David A. Neuman, a former television executive with Current TV and Disney.
Alan Grodin, an attorney for Goddard, said the lawsuit has no merit.
Neuman could not be reached for comment. Phone numbers associated with him have been disconnected, and he did not immediately respond to a message sent through the social networking site LinkedIn.
The lawsuits were filed in Hawaii under a law that temporarily suspends the statute of limitations in civil sex abuse cases. None of the men has been criminally charged, and the statute of limitations for any such charges has passed.
Singer's attorney, Marty Singer, has denied the director abused Egan and called the allegations defamatory.
Egan claims he was lured into a sex ring run by a former digital entertainment company executive with promises of auditions for acting, modeling and commercial jobs. He was put on the company's payroll as an actor and forced to have sex with adult men at parties within Hollywood's entertainment industry, the lawsuit said.
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Hollywood bigwigs deny Bryan Singer sex abuse accuser's latest molestation allegations
By Nancy Dillon
New York Daily News - April 23, 2014
Former Fox executive Garth Ancier, Broadway producer Gary Goddard and former Disney exec David Alexander Neuman were among those named in bombshell lawsuits filed by Michael Egan, who claims he was sexually abused by several Hollywood men as part of a culture of child sex abuse.
TV titan Garth Ancier broke his silence Tuesday to deny he abused aspiring actor Michael Egan as part of a Hollywood sex ring that preyed on teen boys.
The former programming pro at Fox, The WB and NBC – who landed “The Simpsons” and “The West Wing” on the air – said a lawsuit filed against him Monday by Egan in Hawaii is fiction.
“All of the allegations made by the plaintiff against Garth Ancier are demonstrably untrue,” Ancier’s lawyer Louise Ann Fernandez said.
Egan’s lawsuit claims Ancier, 56, started sexually abusing him at private house parties in Encino, Calif., during the late 1990s when Egan was 15. It also claims Ancier gave Egan wine laced with drugs and sexually assaulted him at the Paul Mitchell estate in Kailua, Hawaii, between August and October of 1999.
Ancier, 56, said through his lawyer Tuesday that he never attended anything at the rentable oasis on O’ahu.
“As just one of many examples, Mr. Ancier has never even visited the estate in Hawaii where the plaintiff claims to have encountered him,” Ancier’s lawyer said in the statement.
“Mr. Ancier is grateful to his friends, family and colleagues for their support,” the statement said.
Egan, 31, filed a blockbuster lawsuit last week that accused “X-Men” director Bryan Singer of molesting him when he was 15. Singer denied the allegations through his lawyer.
Egan filed three nearly identical lawsuits Monday against Ancier, producer Gary Wayne Goddard, 61, and former Disney exec David Alexander Neuman, 53.
Egan’s lawyer Jeff Herman, who previously represented victims in the molestation lawsuits against Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash, claimed in the suits that the men were part of a “sordid sex ring” that “groomed” underage boys for sexual victimization.
The lawsuits accuse the defendants of sexually abusing Egan at “notorious” house parties fueled by drugs, alcohol and favors – and sometimes the threat of violence.
At a press conference Monday, Herman named party host Marc Collins-Rector as the ringleader of the “degenerate” parties and said the former dot-com millionaire lured Egan into his private life with a $1,500-per-week acting job on an online TV show he produced.
The lawsuits claim Egan is heterosexual and never voluntarily consented to the sexual interactions – rather he was drugged, held down or otherwise coerced.
Collins-Rector pointed a firearm at Egan on one occasion and locked him in a gun safe at his Encino mansion on another, the lawsuits claim.
Now believed to be living outside the country, Collins-Rector was convicted in 2004 of transporting five minors across state lines to have sex.
Neuman immediately took to Twitter Monday to rebut Egan’s accusations.
"I just want everyone to know right now that the disgusting allegations made against me are COMPLETELY FALSE," he tweeted shortly after the lawsuits went public. "Also very shocking in that they don't just stretch the truth, they are whole-cloth lies with zero basis in reality or truth."
He called Egan’s claims "sickening, and very evil,” and promised to “set the record straight.”
Goddard’s lawyer said his client was out of the country and had not seen the lawsuit.
“Based on what we have heard, the allegations are without merit,” Goddard’s lawyer Alan Grodin said Monday in a statement to The News. “Once we have seen the complaint, we will respond appropriately."
Egan’s lawsuit against Goddard alleges the defendant, a producer of Broadway shows and theme park rides, gave him “mind-altering substances,” groped him and forcibly sodomized him.
“I wouldn’t wish it on any of my worst enemies, to go through what I went through as a child,” Egan said at the press conference Monday.
He said he decided to come forward with the allegations after more than a decade because he is now under the care of a trauma therapist and finally found a lawyer willing to “protect” him.
“You won’t have another chance to hurt another victim,” he told the Daily News Monday, addressing the men named in his lawsuits. “You won’t have a chance to hurt another child.”
Egan’s mother, Bonnie Mound, broke down crying Monday, saying her son kept quiet from age 15 to 17 because he was “petrified” over threats of retaliation.
She said she wrote hundreds of letters to members of law enforcement and the media but got nowhere.
Mound scoffed at claims she and her son are searching for a payday.
“It’s not about money, it’s about disarming these pedophiles who use their wealth and power to escape justice,” she said, sobbing.
Egan’s lawsuits were filed in Hawaii thanks to a law that temporarily suspends the statute of limitations on sex abuse claims brought in civil cases.
Herman said another alleged victim — a friend of Egan’s who was with him at parties where the alleged abuse took place — plans to come forward with similar allegations but suffers from serious medical issues stemming from the abuse, including alcoholism and a premature stroke.
Egan’s earlier lawsuit against the “X-Men” director claims Singer repeatedly sexually abused him when he was a teen.
Singer’s lawyer Marty Singer denied the allegations, calling them "absurd" and defamatory and raising the possibility of a counter lawsuit.
“I'm not going to be bullied," Herman said Monday.
Herman was equally undeterred by Ancier’s denial.
"We have a good faith belief in the allegations and we will litigate this in the United States District Court,” Herman told The News Tuesday.
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