Three days after Bryan Singer was fired from the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, the director has been sued for allegedly raping a 17-year-old boy in 2003. Cesar Sanchez-Guzman accuses Singer of forcing him to perform oral sex and anally penetrating him on a yacht in Seattle. Singer “categorically” denied the allegations to Variety.
The suit alleges that after the incident, Singer told Sanchez-Guzman that “no one would believe him if he ever reported the incident,” and that he “could hire people who are capable of ruining someone’s reputation.” Singer allegedly told Sanchez-Guzman that he was a producer and could help him get into acting if he never reported what happened on the yacht.
Sanchez-Guzman is reportedly represented by Jeffrey Herman, the same attorney who represented Michael Egan in a 2014 lawsuit alleging that Singer raped Egan and forced him to inhale cocaine in 1999. That lawsuit was dropped after Egan rejected a settlement proposed by Herman that reportedly would’ve given Egan $100,000 in exchange for signing a confidentiality agreement.
“I would look like a complete liar if I came out and said the things he wants me to say,” Egan told Vulture at the time. “I look at what Jeff did to me as no better than the pedophiles.”
Herman also represented Egan in lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by television producer Garth Ancier and former Disney executive David Neuman, to whom Herman later apologized and retracted the claims. Herman and another attorney representing Egan paid Ancier an undisclosed seven-figure settlement for malicious prosecution.
After Singer was replaced as the director of Bohemian Rhapsody, his production company, Bad Hat Harry, shut down. You can read the lawsuit and Singer’s full statement below.
Cesar Sanchez-Guzman v. Bryan Singer:
Singer’s statement:
Bryan categorically denies these allegations and will vehemently defend this lawsuit to the very end. Cesar Sanchez-Guzman apparently claims that he did not remember this alleged incident from 2003 until now. Significantly, when Sanchez-Guzman filed for bankruptcy only a few years ago, he failed to disclose this alleged claim when he was supposed to identify all of his assets, but conveniently, now that the bankruptcy court discharged all of his debts, he is able to recall the alleged events. The attorney behind this lawsuit is the same lawyer who represented Michael Egan, the convicted felon who sued Bryan Singer in 2014. In the end, Egan was forced to dismiss that case once the facts came out and his story completely fell apart. Egan and his attorneys then found themselves as defendants in a malicious prosecution action brought by some of the individuals who Egan previously sued. In an apology to those individuals, Egan’s attorney acknowledged the claims that had been filed were ‘untrue and provably false.’ Notwithstanding his track record, this same lawyer is coming after Bryan again. We are confident that this case will turn out the same way the Egan case did. And once Bryan prevails, he will pursue his own claims for malicious prosecution.
