In a brand new courtroom submitting, the previous little one actress Raquel Lee alleges she was repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted by a Disney employee throughout manufacturing of The Poof Level, a 2001 Disney Channel unique film. The swimsuit, which doesn’t identify the perpetrator, accuses the studio of negligence.
Lee, who was 14 years previous on the time, claims {that a} “middle-aged, male worker who was concerned within the filming of the film” groomed after which assaulted her, first on a number of events in his room at a resort the place the forged and crew had been staying throughout manufacturing in Salt Lake Metropolis after which afterward a flight again to Los Angeles. As well as, the alleged assailant “usually whispered sexually express and harassing feedback” into her ear whereas on set and “used hugs to get near her.”
The criticism contends that this misconduct was carried out “in plain view of the forged and crew and could possibly be heard by the sound technicians managing the forged’s microphones” — but “nobody at Disney intervened.” The submitting additionally asserts that the person “usually made sexually express jokes and commentary on the set” round minors, together with “sexually express feedback about” Lee’s physique. (As well as, she was allegedly allowed to be separated from her on-set guardian “for the overwhelming majority of every day.”)
Lee notes that her skilled efficiency quickly noticeably declined and that a number of Disney executives attacked her “modified habits and trauma response,” accusing her of “being ‘uncontrolled,’ inflicting the film to go ‘haywire,’ ‘want[ing] Jesus,’ having ‘a demon inside her’ and interesting in intercourse acts with a member of the crew on the age of 14.” The litigation provides, “Disney threatened to, and did, cancel” her position in a then-forthcoming manufacturing with the studio.
Lee is represented by Doug Wigdor, a outstanding plaintiffs’ employment and sexual-misconduct lawyer. He has beforehand represented Cassie Ventura in opposition to Sean “Diddy” Combs; Nafissatou Diallo, the resort housekeeper who accused then-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault; and a number of ladies who alleged misconduct by Harvey Weinstein.
Disney declined to touch upon the litigation. In an announcement, Wigdor and his colleague Jane Kim stated: “Over the past decade, numerous little one actors have come ahead to bravely share their experiences of abuse by adults in leisure. As former authorities prosecutors, our message to the leisure business is straightforward: This conduct is inexcusable, and people concerned — straight or not directly — should be held accountable.”
The criticism contends that Lee’s expertise was a part of a protracted sample on the studio: “This isn’t the primary time that Disney has enabled a sexual predator to focus on and abuse susceptible victims.” Wigdor’s submitting cites a litany of beforehand reported accusations of predatory misconduct over many years which have been linked to the corporate.
Shortly after The Poof Level, Lee went on to recur as a voiceover artist on the Disney Channel animated sitcom The Proud Household, and not too long ago participated once more in its Disney+ revival, The Proud Household: Louder and Prouder. She additionally labored with the corporate when she appeared on FX’s Snowfall in 2019.
As well as, Lee participated within the hit 2024 docuseries Quiet on Set: The Darkish Facet of Children TV, through which she mirrored on her remedy as a Black performer on Nickelodeon’s The Amanda Present. She didn’t levy her The Poof Level claims within the docuseries, which turned a cultural phenomenon for its concentrate on alleged misconduct in opposition to little one actors. Nevertheless, after its airing, she famous that Drake Bell’s dialogue of experiencing on-set sexual abuse was “retraumatizing” for her.
