UNITED STATES
Slate
June 13, 2019
By Matthew Dessem
Bohemian Rhapsody director Bryan Singer has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that he raped Cesar Sanchez-Guzman in 2003, the Los Angeles Times reports. Sanchez-Guzman, who was 17 at the time of the alleged assault, wrote in his complaint that he was attending a party on Lester Waters’ yacht when Singer lured him into a private room, forced him to perform oral sex, performed oral sex on him, and raped him, despite his protests. Singer has consistently and flatly denied Sanchez-Guzman’s claims, saying he didn’t know him at all.
The settlement was the product of negotiations between Singer’s attorneys and Sanchez-Guzman’s bankruptcy trustee Nancy James, not Sanchez-Guzman himself. Singer’s accuser filed for bankruptcy in 2014; when he sued Singer three years later, his bankruptcy trustee reopened his case on the grounds that his creditors had an interest in the proceeds, if there were any. In a filing on Wednesday, James recommended the court approve a settlement of $150,000, noting that Sanchez-Guzman had not produced any evidence he attended the 2003 party. Singer’s attorneys said in a statement that agreeing to the settlement was a business decision, not an admission of guilt:
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