Steven Seagal won’t be charged in latest sexual assault case

On December 21, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office announced that actor Steven Seagal would not be facing any criminal charges in a sexual assault case stemming from allegations brought against him by former model Faviola Dadis, who filed a police complaint against Seagal earlier this year.  Dadis alleged in that complaint that Seagal groped her during an audition at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2002 when the model was 17-years-old.  In not pursuing those charges against Seagal, the district attorney’s office said that “there wasn’t sufficient evidence and the statute of limitations had expired,” according to The Los Angeles Times.

Dadis was represented by lawyer Lisa Bloom in her complaint against Seagal.  Bloom shared with The Wrap last January that the actor turned Russian / U.S. envoy groped Dadis at an audition and then instructed the then 17-year-old model / actress to don a bikini so he could perform a romantic scene with her. 

She [Dadis] said she was uncomfortable with that. “And then he started pinching my nipples and grabbing my crotch area with his other hand,” she told the Wrap. “I quickly yelled ‘This audition is over!’” In a statement, Bloom said the case was not charged solely because the law requires that older cases include independent, corroborating evidence.  ~ per Variety

Dadis’ wasn’t the only sexual assault case brought against Seagal this year.  Actress Regina Simons who played an extra in Seagal’s 1994 film “On Deadly Ground,” said that the actor raped her during filming when she was 18-years-old. Simons said that Seagal invited her to a party at his home during that filming – but when she got to his place, she was the only guest.  She went on to allege that “Seagal took her to a bedroom, kissed her and then raped her.”

Prosecutors also declined to file charges against Seagal in Simons’ case because Simons was 18; and again, the statute of limitations for rape had expired, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Attorney Lisa Bloom represented both Dadis and Simons and is frustrated that authorities would not or could not pursue charges against Seagal in those cases. The Times quotes her in a statement as saying, “The law fails to recognize that few minors are emotionally ready to seek justice against their rapists until many years later. Instead, it offers rapists a ‘get out of jail free’ card if they simply pass an arbitrary time deadline. And the law seems to presume that victims are lying, creating an unfairly high evidentiary standard not required in other criminal cases. Few rapists commit their crimes in the presence of witnesses.”

At least 12 women, including actress Jenny McCarthy, have accused the actor of sexual harassment and / or assault; but only Dadis and Simons have filed formal charges against him.

The 66-year-old Seagal, best known for his martial arts skills and producing and acting in movies like “Under Siege,” “On Deadly Ground,” “The Glimmer Man” and “Machete,” was named a Russian citizen by Vladimir Putin in 2016 and just this year named by the Kremlin as a special envoy to the U.S. from Russia to help improve relations between the two super powers, according to Reuters.

~ Written by: Richard Webster, Ace News Today  /   Connect with Richard on Facebook and Twitter