“The Oval” actor Derek Dixon has damaged his silence after accusing Hollywood filmmaker Tyler Perry of sexual assault and harassment in a bombshell $250 million lawsuit final month.
“I couldn't simply let him get away with this,” Dixon informed The Hollywood Reporter. “Everybody deserves to go to work and do their job with out their boss making an attempt to have intercourse with them.”
“My objective is to assist make sure that the following technology of actors and creatives don't have to decide on between their goals and their dignity.”
Dixon claimed he was “too afraid to come back ahead” over fears of adverse consideration saying, “Because of this individuals, particularly males, don't come ahead.”
“I knew it could be terrible. And I used to be proper,” he added.
The actor was then requested if he had tried settling the dispute with Perry in personal.
“There are at all times makes an attempt to resolve conditions like this privately, however they by no means end in the kind of change vital to guard additional victims,” he informed the outlet. “On the finish of the day my absolute worry is that he'll be capable of proceed doing this with none main penalties.”
Dixon claimed that for a very long time, he tried to bury his alleged expertise, telling himself it “was a part of the business, or that I needed to settle for it to maintain working.”
“However finally, I couldn't keep silent anymore,” he added.
In courtroom paperwork obtained by The Submit final month, Dixon sued Perry, 55, for alleged sexual assault and sexual harassment in a grievance filed with the Superior Court docket of California in Los Angeles.
The actor claimed Perry “took his success and energy and used his appreciable affect within the leisure business to create a coercive, sexually exploitative dynamic” between them when he labored on the set of “The Oval” and “Ruthless.”
The “Madea Goes to Jail” star rapidly denied the allegations.
“That is a person who acquired near Tyler Perry for what now seems to be nothing greater than organising a rip-off,” Perry's lawyer Matthew Boyd informed The Submit final month. “However Tyler is not going to be shaken down and we're assured these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”
In his submitting, Dixon claimed that he was virtually raped by Perry whereas as soon as once more visiting the leisure mogul's Georgia house in June 2021.
He alleged that Perry pulled down his underwear and groped his butt after asking for a “good evening” hug.
“Reasonably than arguing, Dixon complied, at which level Perry reached out and yanked Dixon's underwear down from behind,” the lawsuit learn. “Perry then started to vigorously seize, grope, and play with Dixon's buttocks in a sexual method. Dixon was bare, surprised and seized by large worry.”
“Dixon began to inform Perry that he ‘didn't need [his] underwear down,' that Dixon ‘didn't need to be bare,' and that Dixon ‘didn't need this,'” the swimsuit alleged.
“Dixon rapidly reached to tug his underwear again up. As quickly as he did, Perry grabbed Dixon's reaching arm with a good grip and held quick.”
In keeping with the courtroom paperwork, Dixon was in a position to distract Perry and alter the topic earlier than the alleged incident went any additional.
In addition to his many accusations in opposition to Perry, Dixon additionally included a number of years' value of alleged textual content message exchanges between the pair in his submitting.
Dixon is suing Perry and Tyler Perry Studios for quid professional quo sexual harassment, work atmosphere harassment, sexual harassment, office gender violence, sexual battery, sexual assault, retaliation, and extra.
