Television executive Garth Ancier has fired back at the sex abuse accusations made against him, filing a motion in U.S. District Court in Hawaii to dismiss the lawsuit filed against him by Michael Egan, who claims to have been sexually abused by a number of Hollywood executives, including Ancier.
Egan has accused Ancier — whose career includes stints at NBC Entertainment, Fox and The WB — of abusing him beginning when the latter was 15 years old at a mansion in Encino, Calif., and later during trips to the Paul Mitchell Estate in Hawaii.
Egan has made similar accusations — included in lawsuits filed in April — against former NBC vice president, comedy development David Neuman, Goddard Group founder and CEO Gary Goddard and “X-Men” director Bryan Singer.
Singer, Goddard and Neuman have also filed motions to dismiss.
Ancier has strenuously denied the accusations. A statement issued on behalf of Ancier by his attorney in April called the accusations “demonstrably untrue.”
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“All of the allegations made by the plaintiff against Garth Ancier are demonstrably untrue, and we are confident the courts will agree when the evidence is presented,” the statement read. “As just one of many examples, Mr. Ancier has never even visited the estate in Hawaii where the plaintiff claims to have encountered him. Mr. Ancier is grateful to his friends, family and colleagues for their support.”
The motion to dismiss was accompanied by a memo that claims that the alleged abuse in California, which according to Egan took place between 1998 and 2000, falls outside of California’s statute of limitations. It goes on to accuse Egan of attempting to exploit Hawaii’s statute of limitations while pushing false allegations.
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“These allegations are, like all of the other allegations in the Complaint, demonstrably false, and are part of transparent by a non-Hawaii resident — who did not even set foot in Hawaii himself during the time in question — to avail himself of Hawaii’s extended statute of limitations,” the memo reads.
The memo, filed Thursday, goes on to state that the alleged abuse in Hawaii took place during “two visits to Hawaii in 1999 that Mr. Ancier never made.”
A declaration from Ancier states that he could not have been in Hawaii during the time of the alleged abuse because his career demands as president and programming chief of NBC would have prohibited it.
“Those allegations are all false,” Ancier says in the declaration, adding, “I have never flown in a private jet to Hawaii, have never flown on a private jet with Mr. Egan, have never even visited the Paul Mitchell estate, and was not in Hawaii during the time of the two alleged trips.”
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.