Marky, I think you misunderstood. This is what I was referring to. Read this article about the this innocent little "victim". The end is my favorite.
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand today invited Kayden Nguyen, a California woman who filed a lawsuit alleging she was held captive at a Jean Lafitte mansion by actor and reserve deputy Steven Seagal and treated like a "sex toy" during the taping of the television show "Steven Seagal: Lawman," to contact the agency and file a criminal complaint.
"I will treat Mr. Seagal no differently than any other employee of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. I'm not moved one iota by virture of his being a movie star or the fact that the national media has an interest in this case," Normand said at a news conference.
Without an official complaint, Normand said his office could not move forward with any type of investigation in the matter, as per a long-standing Sheriff's Office policy. When such allegations arise, Normand said his office always lets the criminal investigation proceed before conducting any type of administrative hearing. The sheriff also noted that it is not the agency's policy to open investigations into allegations made in lawsuits, whether they are filed in California or Jefferson Parish.
"If we're going to be fair to both sides, we would require to victim to come in," he said.
Normand said he heard Nguyen's attorney, William Waldo, say she felt uncomfortable having the Sheriff's Office handle a criminal complaint. But Normand pointed out that the agency has put its own deputies in jail before and can handle any investigation.
"The message that I'm sending to Mr. Waldo today is that he can rest assured that if his client is willing to subject herself to giving us a statement relative to these alleged acts, that we will appropriately investigate the matter," Normand said. "If he does not have a level of comfort there, I would invite him to go to the FBI."
When reached by telephone Wednesday evening, Waldo said that he had not been directly contacted by the sheriff.
But when asked whether his client intended to file a criminal complaint, Waldo said, "I'm not going to talk, speculate, consider or anything else about anything that Ms. Nguyen may or may not do anywhere, anytime. The only thing I will talk about and the only thing that has happened is a complaint for damages filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court."
The sheriff also said he contacted A&E, the network that airs Seagal's unscripted show based on his affiliation with the Sheriff's Office as a reserve deputy, to cancel taping.
"I informed A&E and ITTV that I did not believe at the present time in light of all of this interest and in light of the filing of this particular lawsuit and in light of the disruptive behavior that may end up existing ... that I did not think it would be in our best interest to continue filming at the present time," Normand said.
Nguyen, 23, filed the civil lawsuit (read the lawsuit ) Monday in Los Angeles in state Superior Court and accused Seagal, 59, of illegal trafficking of females for sex, sexual harassment, failure to prevent sexual harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination and false representation about employment.
In the lawsuit, Nguyen said she was told upon her hiring that she would be an executive assistant performing clerical work for Seagal. But she asserts she actually was hired to be an "attendant" to the star and expected to provide "sex on call to him 24 hours a day, seven days a week."
Normand had little information about the allegations other than what was included in the lawsuit. But he said he has been able to confirm that Nguyen did indeed call for a taxi on the night of Feb. 28, when she says she escaped from Seagal and the Lafitte mansion. Normand said Nguyen actually contacted a Jefferson deputy that night to call a cab for her.
"I spoke to that officer, and that officer indicated that there was not any sense of distress at all. In fact, there was a sense of frustration because she could not get a cab to come to Lafitte," the sheriff said.
A representative with the unidentified cab company that eventually picked up Nguyen told the deputy that they'd been to the address before and had been sent away because the person who called changed their mind about leaving, Normand said.
Seagal's attorney, Martin Singer, has called Nguyen a disgruntled former employee.
"I am extremely confident this meritless lawsuit will be dismissed. Ms. Nguyen filed her lawsuit without even notifying Mr. Seagal or his representatives of her alleged claims, because she was aware that claims could be asserted against her based on her own conduct," he said.
