The anonymous plaintiff who accused comedians Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears of grooming and molesting her and her younger brother as children as part of sexually charged comedy sketches has dropped her lawsuit.
Per a notice of dismissal shared with BuzzFeed News by Haddish's attorneys, the plaintiff asked a federal judge in the US District Court for Central California on Tuesday to dismiss her lawsuit with prejudice, which means it cannot be filed again.
The plaintiff, named in the lawsuit only as Jane Doe, released a statement to TMZ and Deadline stating that she and her family have “known Tiffany Haddish for many years, and we now know that she would never harm me or my brother or help anyone else do anything that could harm us.
"We wish Tiffany the best and are glad that we can put this all behind us," said the plaintiff, who did not mention comedian Spears in her statement.
In the original lawsuit filed at the end of August, the two anonymous plaintiffs accused the comedians of recruiting them to perform indecent acts of sexual nature for comedy sketches that were filmed in 2013 and 2014.
The plaintiffs, the children of one of Haddish's former friends, were 7 and 14 years old, respectively, at the time of the alleged incidents, according to the original lawsuit.
The original complaint against Haddish and Spears accused them of intentional infliction of emotional distress, gross negligence, negligent supervision, breach of fiduciary duty, constructive fraud, sexual battery, sexual harassment, and sexual abuse of a minor.
When the lawsuit was filed a few weeks ago, Haddish’s attorney Andrew Brettler denied the allegations in a statement sent to BuzzFeed News:
Plaintiff’s mother … has been trying to assert these bogus claims against Ms. Haddish for several years. Every attorney who has initially taken on her case — and there were several — ultimately dropped the matter once it became clear that the claims were meritless and Ms. Haddish would not be shaken down. Now, [the mother] has her adult daughter representing herself in this lawsuit. The two of them will together face the consequences of pursuing this frivolous action.
(BuzzFeed News did not publish the name of the mother to protect the privacy of the plaintiffs.)
The original complaint stated that Haddish took Jane Doe, then 14, to a Hollywood studio to film a "sexually suggestive" video. The minor was asked by the comedians to watch a video featuring a group of women eating a sandwich and "moaning and making sexual noises as they both ate the sandwich in a manner that simulated the act of fellatio," the suit said.
The plaintiff alleged that Spears then told Jane Doe that he wanted her to mimic what she had seen on the screen, "including the noises precisely like what she had heard throughout the video." Haddish then allegedly showed Jane Doe how to give fellatio "including movements, noises, moaning and groaning."
The plaintiff said that Haddish paid her $100 and sent her home.
A year later, in 2014, Haddish reached out to the mother about filming another video, this time with her 7-year-old son, John Doe. The video was a comedy sketch titled "Through a Pedophile's Eyes."
The lawsuit alleged John was stripped "down to his underwear" and that the video shows Spears "lusting over the 7-year-old child and molesting him throughout the video." The plaintiffs also alleged that Haddish was present during the filming of the video.
After the lawsuit was filed, Haddish herself responded on Instagram, stating that she regretted being part of the videos.
"I know people have a bunch of questions. I get it. I'm right there with you. Unfortunately, because there is an ongoing legal case, there's very little that I can say right now," Haddish said. "But, clearly, while this sketch was intended to be comedic, it wasn't funny at all — and I deeply regret having agreed to act in it."
David Mack contributed reporting to this story.