As Clash prepares for the legal battle of his life, his three accusers are publicly reprimanded for essentially bringing down Elmo. Are they gold-seeking liars, as portrayed in the press, or are they young men who reconcile with their own demons and take courage in the face of a certain defamation? As a reminder, according to Sesame Workshop, the organization was approached months ago by a 23-year-old man who claimed to have had sex with Clash at the age of 16. (Age of consent laws vary from state to state; New York is 17 years old.) Sesame Workshop`s statement described its investigation as “thorough” and that it considered the minors` allegation to be “unfounded”. On Monday, TMZ published news of the allegation, and Clash confirmed that he had a relationship with the prosecutor, but after he came of age. Sesame Workshop announced that Clash is on leave: “Kevin insists that the allegation of underage behavior is false and defamatory and that he is taking steps to protect his reputation,” the statement reads. I don`t know if you can understand unless you`re in the situation,” he said. It`s like dating a teacher you have a crush on and who thinks it`s special. You know you shouldn`t do it, but you can`t help it. I thought everything was revolving around me. But I realize it`s inappropriate, illegal, and immoral, whether it`s a man or a woman, gay or straight.
I`m not saying I`m not responsible. I played a role. But I feel strong now that he is a predator. He knew I would be vulnerable to him because I had just come out of a foster family. I think he sued us. Kevin Mulhearn, one of the lawyers in Poly Prep`s sexual abuse trial, articulated this question. “Assuming their relationship was `consensual,`” he wrote in an email, “Mr. Clash was more than 30 years older than his accuser, who had barely reached the age of consent when their affair began.
So even if there were no legal issue regarding the age of consent, this kind of discrepancy worries me about a possible abuse of power or subordination of the young man`s will. After graduating from high school, Stephens moved to New York City, but he and Clash saw each other less. Stephens said he went through a “rebellious” phase, celebrating and getting into trouble until he decided to confide in his grandmother, a pious Jehovah`s Witness. Last month, the puppeteer who turned a red furry muppet named Elmo into an international sensation owes $96,000 in principal and $4,000 in interest, according to the lawsuit. A lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in New York accuses Clash of sexually abusing a second minor. The lawsuit alleges that Cecil Singleton, now a 24-year-old student, had a two-week relationship with Clash in 2003 at the age of 15. The lawsuit seeks more than $5 million in damages. Singleton`s attorney, Jeff Herman, a Miami lawyer who specializes in abuse cases, says he has been contacted by two other potential victims and expects further legal action. Finkelhor says that when others come forward, victims may feel “likely to be believed and feel empowered” to do the same.
But “it can also happen that someone sees an opportunity to have a legal case.” Stephens denies this version of events. “That`s certainly not true,” he said. “I wouldn`t have gone to a big company like this without legal representation asking for money. I didn`t and I certainly didn`t say that. Regardless of the truth of the miners` claim, Clash is certainly in trouble. After all, he is a star for children and an employee of a company that educates and entertains small people. In the post-Sandusky era, the suggestion that an older authority figure has sex with a minor boy seems to end his career – although there has been no evidence of coercion or assault here. (The Prosecutor`s lawyer, Benjamin D.
Andreozzi, did not answer my call.) After the second meeting, Stephens hired a lawyer, Ben Andreozzi, whose law firm specializes in sexual abuse cases, including one of Jerry Sandusky`s child rape victims. Andreozzi asked Stephens to take a lie detector test and advised him to sue Clash, although Stephens said he told him from the beginning that he was not interested in legal action. Andreozzi declined to be interviewed for this article. Clash`s attorney, Michael Berger, said Monday that his client was “satisfied with the judge`s decision.” Sesame Workshop is the non-profit educational organization behind Sesame Street. The Appeals Court`s decision on the three New York trials does not cover a separate lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania last year by Clash`s first prosecutor. No solution to the Pennsylvania case has been announced. It wasn`t uncommon at the time for Singleton to date older men, he said. He came out when he was 13 and had already had sex with other adult men, he said, but no one as old as Clash. That night, after dinner, Clash invited Singleton to go to his apartment “for a proper kiss,” and the two engaged in sexual behavior but not sex, Singleton said.
It only got worse for Clash. On November 27, a 28-year-old Florida man sued Clash for having sex with him in 2000, when he was 16. As Singleton told “D.O.”, he met Clash in a gay chat line called “Power Chat.” According to the lawsuit, Clash claimed it was a 30-year-old man named Craig and, after two days of phone calls, invited D.O. to visit him at his apartment. Kevin Clash resigned as Elmo`s puppeteer after the sex scandal spread to include the longtime Sesame Street staple. “I see a significant number of cases, especially in boys, where they then reshaped things,” says David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes against Children research center and professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire. For teens who “face sexual orientation issues or have homosexual experiences, there`s a huge whirlwind of contradictory things happening.” In the lawsuit, Singleton claims that while Clash “led a prominent public life focused on entertaining toddlers,” “secretly hunted down teenagers to satisfy his tainted sexual interests.” After conversations about a gay chat line, the lawsuit says Clash lured Singleton into a sexual relationship and earned his trust with money and a “good dinner.” A “docile victim,” Singleton says he wasn`t aware of Clash`s connection to Elmo and didn`t realize his trauma until this year. “But at that time, there were some details that were suspicious to me,” Singleton said. “I guess because I had matured and started noticing things. It was quite clear that he was a man of means.
He had a personal driver. He took me to extravagant restaurants. He had an answering machine. McKenna sent a request for comment back to Representatives of Sesame Workshop, who declined to be interviewed. But the source close to the Sesame Workshop investigation told The Daily Beast that Stephens “was not accused of engaging in extortion,” but he actually suggested “a `substantial cash payment` as a solution.” Meanwhile, Singleton said he and Clash had never had sex, and Clash had not offered him any drugs. They lost touch — Singleton said his phone number changed a lot — until they found themselves on the same chat line when Singleton was 17. They went to two more dates before cancelling it again, he said. “I feel compassion for Sheldon, but it`s very difficult for me to understand his situation because there`s not enough money for me to compromise my reputation and my word,” Singleton said. “They couldn`t pay me $2 million to say I invented it or that I was confused. I don`t have any bad feelings towards him, but it just didn`t make the situation any easier for the rest of us. In July 2013, a New York judge dismissed the charges against Clash, and the Appeals Court upheld that decision this month. The company declined to comment further, although Sesame said last week that after a “thorough investigation” that began last June, it considered the allegation of “minor behavior” — which Clash denied — to be unfounded.
But behind the scenes, Stephens said, there was panic. Andreozzi traveled alone to New York to meet with lawyers for Sesame Workshop and Clash. He called Stephens several times during this trip to reach a settlement agreement. Stephens said Andreozzi told him that if there hadn`t been a leak, he probably could have gotten nearly $1 million.