Kevin Clash, the voice of Sesame
Street's Elmo, reportedly paid his accuser $125,000 to recant
underage sexual allegations.
According to celebrity website TMZ.com,
Clash agreed to pay 24-year-old Sheldon Stephens, an aspiring
actor/model with a troubled past, $125,000 on the condition that he
withdraw allegations that he and Clash had a sexual relationship when
Stephens was 16 years old.
TMZ.com broke the story on Monday.
Stephens made his retraction the following day.
A settlement struck between the parties
reads: “Stephens agrees that immediately upon execution of this
Agreement, his counsel, Andreozzi & Associates, P.C., shall
release the [following] statement … 'He [Stephens] wants it to be
known that his sexual relationship with Mr. Clash was an adult
consensual relationship.”
According to The
Smoking Gun, Stephens' past includes multiple arrests, the most
serious of which took place in 2009 when he was accused of 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.”
According to The
New York Times, Clash had not previously publicly
acknowledged that he is gay.