Raquel Lee, a former child actress, alleges in a court filing that she was repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted by a Disney employee during the production of The Poof Point, a 2001 Disney Channel original movie. The suit accuses the studio of negligence but does not name the alleged perpetrator.
Lee was 14 years old at the time. According to the complaint, a middle-aged male employee involved in filming groomed and assaulted her on multiple occasions in his hotel room during production in Salt Lake City and later on a flight to Los Angeles. The filing states the man regularly made sexually explicit comments to Lee on set and used hugs to gain physical proximity to her.
The complaint contends the misconduct occurred "in plain view of the cast and crew and could be heard by the sound technicians managing the cast's microphones" but that no one at Disney intervened. The filing also asserts the employee made sexually explicit jokes around minors on set and that Lee was separated from her on-set guardian for much of each day.
Lee's professional performance declined noticeably following the alleged abuse, the suit states. The complaint alleges that Disney executives criticized her "changed behavior and trauma response," accusing her of being "out of control" and causing the production to go "haywire." Disney later threatened to and did cancel her role in a forthcoming production, according to the filing.
Lee is represented by Doug Wigdor, a plaintiffs' lawyer who has previously represented accusers in high-profile sexual misconduct cases. The complaint contends Lee's experience was part of a pattern at Disney, citing previously reported accusations of predatory misconduct connected to the studio over decades. Both Wigdor and Disney declined to comment on the litigation.
