A new lawsuit being filed in federal court claims Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash held a crystal meth party in 2004 for a then 16-year-old boy. Sheldon Stephens, now 24, is the fourth man to claim an inappropriate relationship with Clash as an underage teen.
“I was taken advantage of by someone a lot older, and manipulated,” Stephens announced in a news conference. Stephens and Clash had reportedly met at a networking event for models and actors. Clash later sent a limousine to Stephen’s Pennsylvania house to pick him up and take him to 52-year-old Clash’s New York City apartment. Once arriving at the apartment the lawsuit claims Clash smoked crystal meth while he gave 16-year-old Stephens a separate recreational drug.
Clash’s lawyer Michael Berger told CNN that the lawsuit is “meritless and barred by the statute of limitations. Mr. Clash continues to deny any wrongdoing, and we intend to defend this case forcefully.”
Stephens claims his relationship with Clash ended when he was 22-years-old. He decided to file the lawsuit after seeing his nieces watch Elmo on Sesame Street.
“When I started to realize my nieces were idolizing this character, it just disgusted me inside because I knew what had happened to me,” said Stephens.
Clash left Sesame Street in November 2012 after multiple allegations of improper relationships with underage teens began to surface. Although he has already left the show, his voice will be used for Elmo until 2014 since Sesame Street‘s upcoming season has already been filmed. He had voiced the character since 1984.
