The mother of the man alleging director Bryan Singer sexually abused him wept during Monday’s press conference announcing three more Hollywood figures would face similar lawsuits.
Bonnie Mound anticipated some of the questions the reporters at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills had on their minds and answered them before the official questioning began.
“Do you call this fame?” said Mound, sitting next to her son, Michael Egan, and his lawyer Jeff Herman during the event which announced three new lawsuits against industry players. “What part of this is fame? Do you think we like it?”
The press conference revealed that Garth Ancier, David Neuman and Gary Goddard were also being sued by Egan for sexually abusing him during Hollywood sex ring-style parties when Egan was a minor.
Ancier previously served as head of programming for Fox, NBC and The WB, while Neuman formerly oversaw Disney TV and worked at CNN as the news channel’s chief programming officer. Goddard’s LA-based design work includes Universal Studios as a client, and he has produced a series of Broadway productions.
Singer of X-Men fame has vehemently denied the allegations and, through his lawyer, promised to countersue. The director also claims he has credit card bills which will prove he wasn’t in Hawaii at the time the alleged sexual crimes detailed in the lawsuit took place.
Mound cried as she spoke during the press conference, and at one point couldn’t continue.
“It’s not about money … it’s about disarming these pedophiles who use their wealth and power to escape justice.”
Her son’s original suit against Singer demands more than $75,000 on four accusations – battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault and invasion of privacy. Details of the new suits filed Monday were not revealed during the press conference.
Herman said he took six months to investigate Egan’s allegations, during which time he spoke with witnesses and looked over documents relating to the matter.
The lawyer, who says he has tackled roughly 800 sex abuse cases in his career, referred to the atmosphere swirling around these men’s actions as a “Hollywood sex ring” that used threats of violence to keep their victims quiet. Participants allegedly put knives to the youngster’s throats and guns in their mouths to ensure they wouldn’t speak about what had been done to them, Herman alleged.
The assembled reporters pressed Herman and Egan on why Singer’s name wasn’t evoked in the original criminal investigation. They also questioned why law enforcement did not pursue the charges more vigorously when Egan’s family first brought them to their attention. One reporter cautioned Herman against painting all of Hollywood with a broad brush regarding the charges in question.
Mound alleged that she contacted local police, the FBI and several media outlets about the sexual assaults when she learned about them. All three failed to investigate further, she claimed.
Herman noted that the charges in question had nothing to do with blaming someone’s sexual preference for illegal behavior.
“Being gay does not make someone a predator. This is not about homosexuality. This is about grown men sexually abusing children,” Herman said.
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