Three Hollywood executives deny accusations of teen sex abuse

By Ryan Faughnder

April 22, 2014 1:04 PM PT

Three Hollywood executives accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy in the late 1990s say the allegations against them are false.

Garth Ancier, David Neuman and Gary Goddard were named in three separate complaints, filed Monday by attorney Jeff Herman in Hawaii, accusing them of sexually abusing Michael F. Egan III. Last week, Egan accused “X-Men” director Bryan Singer in a federal lawsuit of drugging and sexually assaulting him.

Ancier is a prominent television executive who has held senior positions at Fox, NBC and CNN. Neuman is a former senior Walt Disney television executive and also worked as chief programming officer for CNN. Goddard is the founder of a design firm and has produced off-Broadway shows.

An attorney for Ancier said all of the allegations are false and that the executive has never been to the home in Hawaii where much of the abuse allegedly took place.

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“All of the allegations made by the plaintiff against Garth Ancier are demonstrably untrue, and we are confident the courts will agree when the evidence is presented,” Ancier’s attorney, Louise Ann Fernandez, said in an emailed statement.

“As just one of many examples,” Fernandez continued, “Mr. Ancier has never even visited the estate in Hawaii where the plaintiff claims to have encountered him.”

Neuman said through his Twitter account that the allegations are “disgusting” and “completely false,” and that he intends to “set the record straight” soon.

The accusations “don’t just stretch the truth,” he said. “They are whole-cloth lies with zero basis in reality or truth. Sickening, and very evil, for anyone to lie like that, let alone in a legal document.”

Attorneys for Goddard said the executive will be in China until later this week. “We have now received the complaint and will respond as appropriate,” they said.

Herman expressed confidence in the allegations.

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“We have a good faith belief in the allegations and we will litigate this in the United States District Court,” he said in an emailed statement.

The lawsuits against Singer and the three other men claim that Egan was forced into a “sordid sex ring” in the entertainment industry in which underage boys were supplied alcohol and drugs. Egan alleges that the assaults took place at parties in California and Hawaii when he was 17 years old.

Singer’s attorney has called the suit “absurd and defamatory.”

According to the complaints, the alleged abuse began when Egan was on the payroll of Digital Entertainment Network, a Web video company that collapsed in 2000. At parties hosted by DEN executives at estates in California and Hawaii, the complaints said, the defendants coerced underage boys into sexual activity.

A DEN founder, Marc Collins-Rector, in 2004 pleaded guilty to charges of transporting five underage boys across state lines to commit illegal sex acts.

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