On December 7 of 2017, Bryan Singer of X-Men franchise fame was sued by Cesar Sanchez-Guzman for an incident that said individual claimed to have happened when he was still 17 years old in 2003. According to Sanchez-Guzman, he met Singer at a party held in the Seattle region. There, he was invited into a secluded back room where he was forced into having sex. Afterwards, Sanchez-Guzman claimed that Singer told him that Singer was a famous producer, outright stating that he could help Sanchez-Guzman become an actor so long as Sanchez-Guzman remained silent about the incident. However, if Sanchez-Guzman spoke up, Singer stated that he could hire people who could ruin someone’s reputation as well, which was paired with a second statement that no one would believe Sanchez-Guzman even if Sanchez-Guzman told other people about what had happened.
With that said, the lawsuit was prepared by Herman Law, which is a law firm that specializes in helping people who have been the victims of rape, sexual abuse, and sexual exploitation. The lawsuit is claiming sexual assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and sexual exploitation of children. Some people might be curious about why sexual exploitation of children is included when Sanchez-Guzman was over the state of Washington’s age of consent at the time. If so, this is because the state of Washington’s age of consent comes with certain limitations such as how the adult must not be more than five years older than the teenager, meaning that sexual exploitation of children is indeed relevant in this particular case.
Unsurprisingly, Singer has denied that the incident ever happened. Furthermore, he has announced that he plans to counter-sue for malicious prosecution once the case is over, which could be connected to be the fact that this won’t be the first time that he will be facing off against Herman Law in the court room. After all, Singer has been sued twice with the help of Herman Law based on similar stories, meaning that this will be the third time. The two previous lawsuits went nowhere, but it remains to be seen what will happen with this one.
Further Considerations
Besides the latest lawsuit, Singer has been facing other problems as well. For example, he was fired from Bohemian Rhapsody, which is an upcoming movie about Freddie Mercury and the rest of Queen. Singer claimed that he wasn’t fired because of his clashes over creative differences with the lead actor Rami Malek but rather because 20th Century Fox was unwilling to give him time off to deal with his mother’s health issues. In contrast, 20th Century Fox claims that he was fired because of erratic behavior that was making him unreliable, which was in addition to clashes with multiple people including Rami Malek over the making of the movie. On top of his firing from Bohemian Rhapsody, Singer has also been coming under fire in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein case, which caused him to delete his Twitter account when students at the USC School of Cinematic Arts petitioned to remove his name from their school’s Division of Cinema and Media Studies. Since the latest lawsuit, the USC School of Cinematic Arts has stated that they will listen to the petition of their students, thus showing the seriousness with which they are treating the claim being made against Singer.
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