On Tuesday, the child sex abuse lawsuit filed by a Jane Doe against comedians Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears earlier this month was dropped.
Per court documents obtained by TMZ, who was first to report the update on this suit, Jane asked the judge presiding over the case to dismiss the case “with prejudice,” which means a suit of this nature can’t be filed again in the future. Jane also released a statement in tandem with the news saying:
“My family and I 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 all put this behind us.”
While the statement does not mention Spears, he is also exempt from having this suit refiled against him as well.
As previously reported by The Root, just before the Labor Day weekend, Haddish and Spears found themselves at the center of a shocking new lawsuit in which they faced accusations of child sexual abuse, sexual harassment, sexual battery and more.
The accusations stemmed from Jane Doe who detailed two alleged instances where Haddish, described as a close family friend at the time, recruited both her and her brother (John Doe) to perform inappropriate and sexually suggestive acts when they were 14 and seven, respectively. The treatment John was allegedly subjected to, in particular, was documented in a skit that previously lived on the Funny or Die platform, titled “Through a Pedophile’s Eyes.” That skit has since been taken off the platform, though footage of it has still been seen floating around on social media.
In a post to Instagram on Labor Day (that conveniently had the comments turned off), Haddish expressed that she deeply regrets having acted in a sketch:
“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 I can say right now. 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. I really look forward to being able to share a lot more about this situation as soon as I can.”
Lawyers for both Haddish and Spears have also made statements regarding the matter.