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shangela
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Five members of the LGBTQ community are coming forward with allegations of sexual assault or coercion against drag performer Shangela, who settled a previous rape case that allegedly took place on the set of an HBO series through mediation in February.
In to Rolling Stone article Published on Monday, the five accusers recount incidents in which Darius Jeremy Pierce, the man behind the drag character Shangela, who appeared in the second season of Ru Paul’s drag career and the HBO drag show, They were here, he allegedly assaulted people or attempted to intoxicate them beyond their ability to give consent. The five told the magazine that they showed up after HBO production assistant Daniel McGarrigle filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court accusing Pierce of drugging and raping him after a 2020 farewell party; The case was resolved in mediation after a judge dismissed two of the charges. Pierce vehemently denied the allegation, saying it “has no basis in fact or law.”
Many of the new accusations against Pierce in Rolling StoneMcGarrigle’s story and each other have similar details: Almost all accounts involve Pierce allegedly purchasing or providing alcohol to the young men, who were between 18 and 23 years old at the time they say the assaults occurred; Various memories include the men waking up in Pierce’s bed in a dazed and confused state and there are several accounts of a third man present in the room.
One of Pierce’s accusers, a 27-year-old named Helmer, decided to file a police report in Los Angeles in 2023 about the alleged assault. Helmer says he was 20 when he met Pierce in Los Angeles in 2017 and remembers “waking up completely naked in a bed and believed to be at Pierce’s residence” after the two met for dinner and the drag star bought him a mojito
“(Helmer) asked Pierce what happened last night and why he was naked,” the complaint said, according to the report. “Pierce responded, ‘We had sex and there was another guy involved that you brought in.’ (Helmer) asked who that other guy was, and Pierce said he didn’t know, ‘but you were really interested.’”
Refuting these claims, a lawyer representing Pierce told the magazine that the two had consensual sex with a third man they had met at a bar. He also denied the claims of a second accuser, Edward Ramirez claimed that the artist pushed him to the floor in a closet when he was 21 years old in 2018 and tried to penetrate him. Brettler said Rolling Stone that three people could “attest that Mr. Pierce and Mr. Ramírez were never alone”
Another accuser, Zein Checri, told the magazine that she was 18 in 2017 when she met Pierce in London. After drinking the drinks Pierce provided, he found himself in Pierce’s bed, having vomited; He said he was “not in control of anything that was happening.” Pierce’s attorney said he and Checri were not intimate, but they did consume alcohol and he had gone to his client’s apartment.
An accuser named Zachary says he met Piece in New Orleans in 2015, then “blacked out” after a night of drinking and woke up with Pierce and a third man. “I heard Shangela say, ‘Put this in,’ and I quickly said ‘No,’” Zachary recalled. Rolling Stone. She said she fainted again afterwards. Pierce’s attorney said Rolling Stone Zachary “engaged in consensual sexual acts before falling asleep” that night.
Pierce denies ever knowing RoyLee Soliz, a fifth accuser who claims that, in 2012, after being given drinks, he fell asleep but woke up to the artist he had “admired” trying to place his penis inside his mouth. In a denial through his attorney, Pierce said that he “does not remember meeting RoyLee Soliz” and that he has never had “non-consensual sex of any kind with them or anyone else.”
According to the report, several of the accusers who came forward with accusations against Pierce were hesitant to do so as it could deal a blow to the drag community. As the once underground scene has gone mainstream, with shows like endurance race and They were here Finding a broader audience, family events like drag brunches and story hours have been target of right-wing action groups. In conversation with the magazine, Checri said that he feels that “it is a great relief that, finally, this conversation is beginning to happen.”