Tyler Perry is being sued by one of many actors of his long-running TV present, The Oval. Derek Dixon is suing Perry for $260 million over alleged sexual harassment, assault and retaliation, Folks.com reported.
The grievance cited by Folks and filed Friday, June 13, in Los Angeles, claims Perry created “a coercive, sexually exploitative dynamic” whereas Dixon was starring on Perry’s reveals The Oval and Ruthless.
The grievance accused Perry of “initially promising him profession development and artistic alternatives, akin to producing his pilot and casting him in his present, solely to topic him to escalating sexual harassment, assault and battery, {and professional} retaliation when Mr. Dixon didn’t reciprocate Mr. Perry’s undesirable advances.”
In a response to the allegations, Matthew Boyd, an lawyer for Perry, mentioned in an announcement to Folks, “That is a person who obtained near Tyler Perry for what now seems to be nothing greater than establishing a rip-off.”
“However Tyler won’t be shaken down and we’re assured these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”
Dixon claimed he met Perry at an occasion in September 2019, and Perry requested for his quantity. He alleged that Perry began texting him quickly after, typically with suggestive advances whereas stating that he wished to assist Dixon get a job.
Dixon ended up getting a small function on Ruthless in November 2019, due to Perry. In January 2020, Dixon claimed that he was assaulted by Perry on the filmmaker’s residence and by February, he had a sequence common function on The Oval.
In line with the grievance, “Mr. Perry made it clear to Dixon that if Dixon ignored Perry or failed to have interaction with the sexual innuendos, Dixon’s character would ‘die’ within the subsequent season.
“Certainly, Dixon’s character ‘Dale’ was shot 4 occasions within the chest on the finish of his first season on ‘The Oval,’ and Perry all the time held this over Mr. Dixon’s head, implying that ‘Dale’ would survive if Dixon stored Perry ‘glad.’”
Dixon claimed that after the taking pictures incident in The Oval, Perry requested him to go to his trailer, the place Perry allegedly pinned him to the wall of his trailer and began “aggressively groping Dixon’s buttocks in a sexual movement.”
In October 2020, Dixon claimed he was groped once more throughout a forged journey to the Bahamas. In June the next 12 months, Dixon claimed Perry sexually assaulted him after Perry invited him to his home once more to speak about Dixon’s pilot for his present Shedding It, which Perry had wished to provide.
The actor mentioned that over the following 5 months, he “suffered from extreme despair, anxiousness, abdomen pains, and nausea” and was recognized with post-traumatic stress dysfunction (PTSD).
Dixon, nonetheless, went on to star on The Oval however left through the present’s closing season. He’s now suing Perry for quid professional quo sexual harassment, sexual battery, sexual assault, intentional infliction of emotional misery, retaliation and extra, Folks reported.
Dixon additionally desires a jury trial and damages of $260 million.
