Terry Crews is suing celebrity agent Adam Venit over claims he sexual assaulted him at a Hollywood party.
Crews, a married father-of-five, said in the lawsuit that Venit had stared at him ‘like a rabid dog, sticking his tongue in and out of his mouth provocatively’ during the night of the sex alleged assault in February 2016, TMZ reports.
The actor, who also filed a police report about the sexual assault, had called his agent Brad Slater at William Morris Endeavor, the same agency where Venit works, the following day to report the behavior.
Venit (left) was placed on a one-month unpaid suspension from William Morris Endeavor agency after Crews (right) claimed that the high powered Hollywood agent fondled his genitals during an event in February 2016
Later that same day, Venit reportedly called him to apologize, telling him he was not himself that night.
Crews also met WME’s chairman Ari Emanuel, who apologized for Venit’s behavior.
The alleged incident is said to have occurred last year, but Venit was only suspended over the accusations in October after Crews came forward in the wake of the #MeToo campaign.
He was also demoted from his position as head of the motion picture department, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Venit has already been allowed to return to work following his one-month unpaid suspension from WME – much to Crews’ fury who believes the veteran agent, who represents stars such as Sandler, Steve Martin and Sylvester Stallone, has been able to escape relatively unscathed.
Terry Crews is raging on Twitter that his alleged molester, celebrity agent Adam Venit, has been allowed to return to work just one month after the actor accused him of sexual assault
‘SOMEONE GOT A PASS,’ he tweeted after news Venit was back at work broke.
The Brooklyn Nine-Nine star also pointed to the hypocrisy of Emanuel who had refused to work with Mel Gibson after the troubled actor’s anti-Semetic outburst in 2011.
He tweeted Emanuel’s oped in Huffington Post, which urged the entertainment industry to blacklist Gibson – even if it impacted on the bottom line – which ended: ‘there are times in history when standing up against bigotry and racism are more important than money.’
Crews argues that standing up against sexual abusers is equally as important.
The Brooklyn Nine-Nine star also pointed to the hypocrisy of WME co-CEO Ari Emanuel who had refused to work with Mel Gibson after the troubled actor’s anti-Semetic outburst in 2011
He tweeted Emanuel’s oped in Huffington Post, which urged the entertainment industry to blacklist Gibson – even if it impacted on the bottom line
The letter ended by saying ‘there are times in history when standing up against bigotry and racism are more important than money’
Crews, a strapping former NFL linebacker, shattered stereotypes about sexual assault victims when he came forward with groping allegations last month.
The father-of-five first said: ‘Back in February 2016, I was assaulted by Adam Venit, head of the motion picture department at William Morris Endeavor. One of the biggest agencies in the world, period,’ said Crews.
He went on to explain that he did not even know the agent.
‘I’m looking at him and he’s basically staring at me and he’s sticking his tongue out and, you know, it’s overtly sexual kind of tongue moves and I’m saying, ‘It’s a party. It’s packed.’ The whole thing,’ explained Crews.
‘He comes over to me. I stick my hand out and he takes his hand and puts it and squeezes my genitals. And I jump back like, ‘hey, hey ‘and he’s like licking his tongue out and all this stuff.’
Crews accused co-CEO of William Morris Endeavor, Ari Emanuel, (pictured) of hypocrisy over his decision to let Venit back to work
Crews said that the assault did not end at that point however, and continued to go on in front of the other guests.
‘I go, ‘Dude, what are you doing? What are you doing?’ And then he comes back again and he just won’t stop and then I really got forceful, pushed him back,’ said Crews.
‘He bumps into all the other partygoers and he starts giggling and laughing and let me tell you – I have never felt more emasculated, more objectified. I was horrified.’
He claims that Venit had then fondled his genitals at the event before he turned to Adam Sandler and yelled: ‘Adam, come get your boy! He’s grabbing my nuts.’
Sandler called him later that evening to check if he was OK, to which Crews says he replied that he’d just got molested at the age of 48.
Crews complained about Venit’s behavior at the time to his agent, WME’s Brad Slater. But the agency only began investigating when he tweeted about the incident in October.
Their probe found the incident was isolated and issued Venit with a one-month unpaid suspension.
The actor also retweeted comedian Judah Friedlander who offered his support for Crews after the news.
The former football star, who broke onto the Hollywood scene after years of bit parts with his role in the critically acclaimed series Everybody Hates Chris, has since fired William Morris and filed a police report against Venit.
Venit, who has four children with his wife Trina, is currently on leave from the agency as they investigate the matter.
The Los Angeles Police Department is also investigating the incident.
The night of the incident however, it was Sandler that Crews approached hoping to diffuse the situation.
‘I was like, ‘Adam, what is wrong with your boy.’ He didn’t understand. It was bizarre to both of us,’ said Crews, who at that point was having trouble controlling his anger.
‘I looked at him – it was rage. And when I say rage, I felt like I could punch a hole in his head. But this is the deal – my wife told me, three years earlier, she said, ‘Terry, you can never handle any situation like this with violence. You are a target. You can be baited and pulled.”
He then told host Michael Strahan that as a black man, he believed that the blame would be entirely placed on him if he lashed out at Venit.
Allegations: Crews claims that at a February 2016 party Venit grabbed his genitals and stuck out his tongue in an ‘overtly sexual’ way (Venit and his wife Trina above)
enit (R), his wife Trina and their children Olivia and Matthew attend Yahoo! Sports presents ‘A Day of Champions’ at Sports Museum of Los Angeles in 2011
‘If you react, physically – and let me tell you something, I’ve done it before, but this is the deal, when I grabbed her hand and I left that party, we were only there for like a half hour, I almost ripped the steering wheel off and she just kept saying, ‘I’m proud of you. I’m proud of you.”
Crews then expressed how grateful he was that Rebecca, his wife of 27 years, was by his side that night.
‘She calmed me down because she was the one who told me that this kind of thing would happen and that you could be baited,’ he said.
‘If I would have just retaliated in defense I would be in jail right now. That’s one thing I knew being a large African-American man in America, I would immediately be seen as a thug but I’m not a thug.’
Strahan then asked about the police report, to which Crews responded: ‘You know, people need to be held accountable, Mike. This is the deal about Hollywood. And it’s an abuse of power.
He continued: ‘This guy, one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, and he looked at me at the end as if, you know, who is going to believe you?’
Crews also said that he was only able to come forward now because of the recent movement of victims naming the sexual predators that attacked them.
‘I put it in the back of my head and I understood why women everywhere had to let it go, but let me tell you when the Weinstein thing started happening I got PTSD,’ said Crews.
Support system: Crews said it was his wife Rebecca who helped him through the situation by keeping him from physically attacking Venit
On TV: The 49-year-old actor said that Venit kept coming back to him and giggled when Crews (above on Brooklyn 911) lashed out at his behavior
‘I was going, oh my god, this exact thing happened to me. I understand why they won’t come forward.’
Crews then explained his silence the same way that the more than 100 woman who have accused the likes of Weinstein and James Toback have over the past few weeks.
‘When a person of power breaks that boundary and violates that boundary you’re a prisoner of war immediately because you’re trying to figure out with is the right time to come out,’ said Crews.
‘I’m free. I finally got free and this is the thing a lot of people just don’t understand and they end up blaming the victim. And I have totally said I will not be shamed. I will not be shamed. I did nothing wrong.’
Crews also raged at producer Russell Simmons for allegedly urging him to drop his sexual assault accusation, after Simmons himself became the target of sex misconduct allegations.