Woman Says Seagal Assaulted Her When She Was 17

Latest accuser says actor grabbed her nipples, genitals
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 19, 2018 4:08 PM CDT
New Accuser Says Seagal Assaulted Her When She Was 17
Former model Faviola Dadis, left, reads from a statement at a news conference with her attorney, Lisa Bloom, center, in Los Angeles Monday, March 19, 2018. Dadis, an aspiring actress says she was 17 when actor Steven Seagal sexually assaulted her during a supposed casting session in 2002. At right,...   (AP Photo/Andrew Dalton)

A woman on Monday said she was a 17-year-old model and aspiring actress when Steven Seagal sexually assaulted her at a supposed casting session at a Beverly Hills hotel room in 2002, the AP reports. Faviola Dadis was emotional but composed as she spoke at a news conference in Los Angeles, becoming the latest of several women to accuse the action star of sexual misconduct. Dadis said Seagal reached under her bikini top, grabbed her nipples and then grabbed her genitals soon after the audition began. She said she promptly ended the audition and left deeply shaken. "I have suffered from depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress, have found it difficult to form trusting relationships with men," Dadis said through tears as she read from a written statement. She recently filed a report with police, and Los Angeles prosecutors said Monday that her case is under review.

Dadis spoke at the news conference alongside her attorney and another woman, Regina Simons, who said Seagal sexually assaulted her in 1995 when she was 18, allegations she previously made on NBC's Megyn Kelly Today in January. Dadis said a music producer introduced her to Seagal and that after several phone calls and text messages, Seagal invited Dadis to the late-night casting session for a film he planned to make about Genghis Khan. Seagal had told her to wear a bikini or bra and panties under her clothes, and had her walk around the room in the bikini before saying he wanted to test their chemistry together and started touching her, Dadis said. Dadis said she was inspired by the recent wave of reports of sexual misconduct by men in the entertainment industry, and was spurred to come forward especially by actress Portia de Rossi saying Seagal once unzipped his pants during an audition with her. Actress Jenny McCarthy has also said Seagal sexually harassed her at an audition in 1995. Seagal's attorney says the actor adamantly denies the allegations.

(More Steven Seagal stories.)

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