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In Other News: Comedian Chris D’Elia accused of sexually pursuing and ‘grooming’ underage girls online
More women are speaking out against comedian Chris D’Elia, who was previously accused of sexual misconduct in June. D’Elia has denied all the allegations against him.
In a new interview with CNN, two women said D’Elia exposed himself to them on separate occasions without their consent. A lawyer for the comic denied the accusations to EW.
“D’Elia denies these allegations and emphatically states that he has never engaged in any sexual conduct with any woman without her consent,” the statement read.
Actress Megan Drust told the outlet that in 2011, when she was 26, the comedian exposed himself to her in her car after asking for a ride home. At the time, they were acquaintances and had been at a West Hollywood restaurant with a mutual friend beforehand.
“We are both sitting there and I’m like, ‘Where are we going?’ And Chris is leaning up against the door of the passenger side and looking at me in this really weird way and then he started to try to make flirty small talk,” she said on CNN. “I was very confused because it just didn’t fit the moment. Then he took down his zipper and asked me to touch him and I said, ‘What are you doing? No.’ And because I wouldn’t touch him, he started to masturbate. I couldn’t believe it.”
Drust said she then exited her car.
“I get out and I have the door open and I walk out into the street and I’m saying, ‘Why are you doing this?’ And I remember saying, ‘You’re defiling my car.’ I didn’t want to make him mad or upset because you’re in survival mode, you know?” she continued. “He climaxed in his pants and then he zipped everything up and I said, ‘What’s wrong with you?'”
The actress said the alleged incident, which she hadn’t discussed for nearly a decade, caused her to never attend “anything alone after that.” Two friends Drust said she confided in after the fact corroborated her account to CNN.
Another woman, who requested to stay anonymous, told CNN that D’Elia exposed himself to her in 2018, when he was a guest at the Kimpton Schofield Hotel, which she managed, in Cleveland. She went up to his room after he called the front desk complaining that the air conditioner didn’t work.
“When I knocked on the door, he opened the door and he was completely naked,” she said.
After she left, the woman said D’Elia called again asking her to come up. Despite reporting the incident to her boss, she said, “I was made to feel like it wasn’t a big deal.”
“This isn’t really an uncommon thing to happen in the hotel business,” the woman told CNN. “It just happened to be a famous person who did it this time. I didn’t want to draw attention to it because I also wanted to keep my job.”
The Kimpton Hotel Group, which manages the property, told CNN in a statement: “No incidents of guest misconduct were reported by guests or staff at the Kimpton Schofield Hotel during the dates in question. At Kimpton, the safety of our guests and our people is our top priority. We investigate all incident reports that are filed, however, it is our policy to not disclose identifying information about our employees or our guests outside of law enforcement or regulatory authorities.”
A third woman interviewed by CNN, Laura Vitarelli, previously spoke to the Los Angeles Times about her accusations against D’Elia. She maintained to CNN that D’Elia exposed himself to her and a friend in a hotel room in 2015 when she was 19.
Vitarelli’s attorney, who represents multiple women with similar complaints against D’Elia, told USA TODAY that they are considering a civil suit against D’Elia.
“Our clients have a singular goal — to make sure this doesn’t happen to other women,” the attorney said in a statement to USA TODAY. “And we will pursue all legal options to help them reach that goal.”
EW has reached out to representatives for Drust, Vitarelli, and the Kimpton Hotel Group for further comment.
These allegations come after numerous women spoke out on social media and in an L.A. Times story in June accusing the comedian of acting inappropriately toward them. D’Elia has denied the allegations and said he has “never knowingly pursued any underage women.”
After the report broke, D’Elia was dropped by his representatives and Netflix scrapped plans of a prank show featuring D’Elia and fellow comedian Bryan Callen, who has since also been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by multiple women. Callen has denied the allegations.
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