The man who recanted underage sexual
allegations against Kevin Clash, the voice of Sesame Street's
Elmo, has a troubled past.
Clash's 24-year-old accuser has been
identified by The
Smoking Gun as Sheldon Stephens, an aspiring actor/model.
According to the site, Stephens was
arrested in 2009 for stealing $250,000 worth of jewelry from Los
Angeles music manager Darian Pollard. Police arrested Stephens in
the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania airport wearing a white gold necklace
and a ring. Stephens told cops the jewelry was a gift. Pollard told
police that he was robbed at knifepoint. The charges were eventually
dismissed, and a friend called the incident a simple
“misunderstanding.”
Stephens retracted the allegations that
he and Clash had had a sexual relationship when he was 16 years old
on Tuesday, a day after the allegation went public on TMZ.com.
Clash had acknowledged having sex with
his accuser but denied he was underage at the time.
According to The
New York Times, Clash had not previously publicly
acknowledged that he is gay.