A woman who accused Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears of grooming and molestation has dropped her lawsuit against them.
The woman, known as Jane Doe in the case, accused Haddish and Spears of grooming her and her younger brother when they were children – claims the two comedians strongly denied.
The plaintiff has now requested the case be dismissed with prejudice, meaning she cannot refile the same allegations again.
She told TMZ in a statement: ‘My family and I have known Tiffany Haddish for many years — and we now know that she would never harm me or my brother or help anyone else do anything that could harm us. We wish Tiffany the best and are glad that we can all put this behind us.’
According to reports in TMZ, the older sister – now 22 – alleged that Haddish convinced her to film a sexually suggestive video when she was 14 years old, and that the Night School star taught her how to mimic fellatio.
As well as this, she also reportedly claimed that Haddish and Spears molested her 14-year-old brother, who was seven years old at the time, while filming a Funny or Die video titled Through a Pedophiles Eyes.
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According to the Daily Beast, Haddish and Spears had been accused of intentional infliction of emotional distress, gross negligence, sexual battery, sexual harassment, and sexual abuse of a minor.
Haddish was further accused of negligent supervision/failure to warn, breach of fiduciary duty, and constructive fraud.
She previously spoke out on the lawsuit, saying: ‘I know people have a bunch of questions. I get it. I’m right there with you.
‘Unfortunately, because there is an ongoing legal case, there’s very little that I can say right now.
‘But, clearly, while this sketch was intended to be comedic, it wasn’t funny at all – and I deeply regret having agreed to act in it.
‘I really look forward to being able to share a lot more about this situation as soon as I can.’
An attorney for Haddish also strongly denied the claims, telling Metro.co.uk in a statement: ‘The plaintiff’s mother has been trying to assert these bogus claims against Ms. Haddish for several years.
‘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, the mother has her adult daughter representing herself in this lawsuit. The two of them will together face the consequences of pursuing this frivolous action.’
Spears’ attorney said to Metro.co.uk: ‘He isn’t going to fall for any shakedown.’
A representative for comedy video website Funny Or Die, added to the Daily Beast: ‘Funny Or Die found this video absolutely disgusting and would never produce such content. 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.’
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