“When do you think you will have some time to hang out?” Michael Egan wrote to a man he later alleged was abusing him. “What’s the plan with the house in Spain…Am I moving in?” Egan’s lawyer calls the emails evidence that Egan was a “compliant victim.”
Michael Egan
Nick Ut/Associated Press
Bryan Singer
Mark Thompson / Getty Images
LOS ANGELES — Emails written by the man who recently filed sexual assault lawsuits against director Bryan Singer and other Hollywood executives show that he maintained an extensive and apparently friendly correspondence with a man he has claimed was sexually abusing him at the time, raising questions about whether his allegations are true or whether he was, as his attorney says, "a compliant victim."
Aspiring actor Michael Egan and early digital entrepreneur Chad Shackley exchanged at least 62 emails between April 1999 and April 2000, the documents show. In a lawsuit filed in June of that year, Egan alleged that Shackley and others repeatedly raped him across the same period. Egan was 16 and 17 years old at the time.
BuzzFeed obtained the emails from a longtime associate of Egan, who asked not to be named. In the messages, Egan asks Shackley when he can see him again, requests a large loan for a business venture, and offers to move overseas with him and two other men he later accused of sexual assault.
In some emails, Egan appears willing to participate in social gatherings that took place at Shackley's California mansion, one of the places where Egan now alleges he was abused by Singer and other Hollywood figures.
Jeff Herman, Egan's attorney in the 2014 complaints, told BuzzFeed on Tuesday that the emails display behaviors typical in victims of sexual assault, adding that as a minor Egan was incapable of consenting to Shackley's alleged sexual advances.
"The emails are consistent with compliant victims, especially those who have been abused through a period of time, who have been groomed and drugged and threatened," Herman said. "It's hard for people to understand why victims keep coming back or seem willing to participate, but this is an example of the complexity of sexual assault."
Chad Shackley did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Singer and the other three defendants in the 2014 lawsuits have strenuously denied all wrongdoing. All but one of them have filed motions to have Egan's lawsuit dismissed.
In recent weeks, BuzzFeed has obtained a series of documents that show a number of contradictory claims and statements by Egan. For example, Egan's recent complaint alleges that Singer molested him in Hawaii, but in a sworn deposition taken in 2003, Egan said that he had never traveled outside the continental United States. The same deposition also states that nobody other than the three original defendants ever abused Egan. Egan's counsel maintains that the plaintiff's testimony has always been consistent.
The emails recently obtained by BuzzFeed do not represent a complete picture of Egan's interactions with Shackley, and do not rule out the possibility that Egan was abused by him or anyone else.
Egan and two other plaintiffs were awarded $4.5 million when Shackley and two other defendants, Marc Collins-Rector and Brock Pierce, fled the United States after a settling a separate sexual assault lawsuit. Collins-Rector was later found guilty in a New Jersey federal court of transporting minors across state lines for the purpose of having sex with them.
In the vast majority of the messages, Egan asks Shackley when he can see him next. He offers to come play tennis or help with household tasks — and in at least one instance, says that he can bring along a "good looking friend." In a number of them, he suggests that he could move to Marbella, Spain, with Shackley, Collins-Rector, and others.
No comments:
Post a Comment