A former child actor has filed a lawsuit against Walt Co. alleging that she was “repeatedly raped” and sexually harassed by a man who worked with her during the filming of The Poof Point.
In a lawsuit filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Raquel Lee Bolleau says a middle-aged male Disney employee “supplied her with alcohol and pressured her to consume it,” repeatedly raping and assaulting her for weeks when she was 14.
Despite the age gap, Bolleau said, the employee — referred to as John Doe — told her, “You’re old enough. You can handle it.”
According to the complaint, Mr. Doe’s abuse “was apparent to the adults on Disney’s set,” which is described as “not safe for children.”
Representatives for Disney were not immediately available for comment.
The suit accuses the entertainment giant of violating child labour laws, saying that on multiple occasions, Disney “failed to protect Ms. Bolleau from Mr. Doe’s repeated rapes, sexual assault, sexual abuse, and sexual harassment.”
Bolleau, who had roles on UPN’s Malcolm & Eddie, Nickelodeon’s The Amanda Show and Double Dare 2000, was instructed to “build a relationship and spend time with Mr. Doe” by the film’s director and Disney’s dialogue coach, according to the suit.
In the movie, Bolleau played the teen daughter of two scientists who build a time machine that malfunctions, forcing the kids to take care of their parents as they “de-age” and become children.
The suit states that during filming on location in Utah, John Doe invited Bolleau and her guardian to his hotel room and “supplied them with alcohol.” She says in the lawsuit that after she became intoxicated and left, Doe invited her back to his room where he “raped and sexually assaulted her.”
On set, John Doe “regularly fondled and excessively touched Ms. Bolleau, often rubbing his genitals on Ms. Bolleau” and “made sexually explicit comments about Ms. Bolleau’s body,” the lawsuit says.
“Even though Mr. Doe’s sexual harassment was in plain view of the cast and crew and could be heard by the sound technicians managing the cast’s microphones, no one at Disney intervened.”
As a result of the alleged abuse and alcohol consumption, Bolleau’s physical and mental health “changed dramatically.” On set she was exhausted, “often intoxicated, hungover or vomiting” and in a departure from her work previously, she was “unable to focus and often forgot her lines,” the suit states.
According to the lawsuit, multiple Disney executives “attacked, blamed, and threatened” Bolleau and her mother for the dramatic shift in her behaviour, saying that they were “extremely upset” with her performance.
Bolleau alleges that her role in a forthcoming Disney production Web Girl was cancelled because “she was not performing.”
After filming wrapped up and on the flight home to Los Angeles, Doe “demanded” that Bolleau be seated next to him in first class (her guardian was in economy), where he “reached under her pants and sexually assaulted” her, the complaint states.
Bolleau went home “devastated, unwell physically and mentally, and forever changed.” She gave up “her dream of being an actress” and for the last 25 years “has struggled with the severe trauma, pain, and distress” suffered as a result of John Doe’s “horrific abuse and Disney’s many failures.”
The suit alleges that “Disney’s role in Mr. Doe’s abuse of Ms. Bolleau” is part of a “broader, institutional, and systemic pattern of institutional and individual failures” at the company.
Disney and its executives “permitted, facilitated and actively concealed” the sexual misconduct of disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein,” states the suit. Disney has denied such claims.
In 2022, Weinstein was convicted of rape in Los Angeles. He is currently at Rikers Island awaiting sentencing in September for a criminal sexual act.
His 2020 conviction and 23-year prison sentence in New York for other alleged assaults was overturned and juries were deadlocked in subsequent retrials involving one of his accusers.
In 1997 Disney received complaints about “the grooming of boys for sexual abuse” by Brian Peck, an acting and dialogue coach on the Disney+ series Boy Meets World, according to the suit. Peck later worked for Nickelodeon and was convicted of sexually abusing a child actor in 2004.
In 2005, “Disney rehired Mr. Peck — a convicted and dangerous pedophile and registered sex offender — to work on a children’s television programme after he was released from prison,” the complaint says.
“Over the last decade, countless child actors have come forward to bravely share their experiences of abuse by adults in entertainment.
"As former government prosecutors, our message to the entertainment industry is simple: This conduct is inexcusable, and those involved — directly or indirectly — must be held accountable,” said Bolleau’s attorneys Douglas Wigdor and Jane Kim. - Los Angeles Times/TNS
