After months of horrific allegations of sexual misconduct, The Sandman creator Neil Gaiman has been taken to court docket in a trio of states on allegations of rape, human trafficking and extra by a former New Zealand nanny of his and musician Amanda Palmer’s son.
“This declare arises out of Defendant Neil Gaiman’s sexual abuse of Plaintiff, and his spouse Amanda Palmer’s position in procuring and presenting Plaintiff to Gaiman for such abuse,” states a rape and human trafficking grievance filed in federal court docket Monday in Wisconsin by Scarlett Pavlovich. “Gaiman has a decades-long historical past of sexual misconduct in keeping with the actions that can be described within the following paragraphs,” the 28-page 9 declare motion provides, with vivid element together with a sodomy rape of “slave” Pavlovich by Gaiman simply three years in the past.
In search of no less than $1 million and a jury trial, the case’s particulars align with the deeply researched New York Journal “There Is No Protected Phrase”piece by Lila Shapiro from earlier this 12 months and the allegations made by Pavlovich and 7 totally different ladies in opposition to Gaiman. That New York Journal article drew from Tortoise Media’s six-part podcast Grasp: The Allegations Towards Neil Gaiman from final summer season.
In a January 14 weblog publish, after the Shapiro penned piece got here out, Gaiman wrote: “As I mirror on my previous – and as I re-review every little thing that really occurred as opposed to what’s being alleged – I don’t settle for there was any abuse. To repeat, I’ve by no means engaged in non-consensual sexual exercise with anybody.”
Having stated that, the not CAA-repped Gaiman just lately has been dropped by his UK agent Casarotto Ramsay & Associates’ consumer listing, as my colleague Jake Kanter completely reported final week. Moreover, Anansi Boys writer Darkish Horse Comics has dropped the once-acclaimed scribe, and a UK stage manufacturing of Coraline was canceled within the final days of January. As allegations in opposition to Gaiman grew, Season 3 of Amazon Prime Video‘s Good Omens was scaled again to a 90-minute episode and Disney paused manufacturing on its massive display adaptation of The Graveyard E-book.
On January 31, Netflix revealed that the upcoming second season of the a lot considered The Sandman would be the final, with a proposed Season 3 now DOA.
Dresden Dolls co-founder Palmer, who separated from Gaiman through the pandemic and her and their son’s lockdown in New Zealand, and stated in November 2022 that the couple have been divorcing after greater than a decade of marriage. To that, Palmer posted this on her normally energetic Instagram web page three weeks in the past because the allegations in opposition to the Good Omens showrunner intensified:
Together with the midwestern state, the place American Gods creator and TV sequence EP Gaiman has a house, filings have been submitted in New York, and Massachusetts by Pavlovich’s NYC-based Kamerman Uncyk Soniker & Klein P.C. attorneys with Palmer because the defendant.
Pavlovich and her attorneys declare that Palmer knew how weak the plaintiff was mentally and economically and primarily led her into the lion’s den.
“Palmer was sufficiently conscious that Gaiman was prone to goal Scarlett, that she warned Gaiman to avoid Scarlett earlier than she introduced Scarlett to Gaiman’s home as a babysitter,” the Empire State and New England state filings declare of the preliminary encounters with the overtly open marriage Gaimans within the southwestern Pacific Ocean nation and the early 2022 job provide. “But Palmer by no means warned Scarlett of the identified hazard posed by Gaiman. Had Palmer warned Scarlett of the identified hazard posed by Gaiman, Scarlett would by no means have agreed to babysit Palmer’s little one at Gaiman’s home.”
In that context, the reasoning behind the multi-state submitting is all about residency.
“Upon data and perception, jurisdiction over Palmer is suitable in both New York or Massachusetts, and Palmer might consent to jurisdiction in Wisconsin. Given the uncertainty relating to Palmer’s state of residence, Plaintiff is concurrently submitting actions in opposition to Palmer in the US District Courts for the Southern District of New York and the District of Massachusetts and can proceed in opposition to Palmer solely within the district of her selecting.”
Full disclosure: New York Journal is owned by Vox Media, which Deadline’s mum or dad firm PMC has had an possession stake in since 2023.