Sesame Street has accepted the resignation of Kevin Clash after a second young man came forward accusing Elmo voice actor Kevin Clash of sexual misconduct with a minor.
“Kevin Clash has helped us achieve that mission for 28 years, and none of us, especially Kevin, want anything to divert our attention from our focus on serving as a leading educational organization,” Sesame Street said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the controversy surrounding Kevin’s personal life has become a distraction that none of us want, and he has concluded that he can no longer be effective in his job and has resigned from Sesame Street. This is a sad day for Sesame Street.”
A week after a man accused Clash, and then recanted claims of sexual misconduct when he was 16, celebrity news and gossip site TMZ said another man –who is now in his 30s – has filed a lawsuit against Clash. This man claims the two met on a gay phone chat line back in 1993, when the accuser was 15 years old and Clash was 32.
The accuser claims while Clash was featured on “Sesame Street,” he was “preying on teenage boys to satisfy his depraved sexual interests.
In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in NYC, the accuser claims Clash “groomed [the accuser] to gain his trust by, among other things, taking him to nice dinners and giving him money.”
According to TMZ, the accuser claims although the sex occurred nearly 20 years ago, he didn’t take action until now because he “did not become aware that he had suffered adverse psychological and emotional effects from Kevin Clash’s sexual acts and conduct until 2012.”
The accuser is demanding more than $5 million.
