A lawsuit has been filed against comedians Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears that accuses them of grooming two children and making them perform acts that were sexually suggestive in nature. The charges have been brought against the two alleged victims, who are presently 22 and 14 years old. The two of them are going by the names Jane and John Doe since they were minors when the alleged crime took place. Jane is the plaintiff in the case, The Daily Beast has reported.

Haddish had apparently met their mother on the comedy circuit and called Jane and John her niece and nephew. Their mother said to The Daily Beast that she had gotten close with Haddish during a time when both of them were going through “messy divorces”.

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Jane said that Haddish had asked her to be a part of a commercial the latter will be shooting. She made Jane watch a clip and asked her to mimic what she had seen. The lawsuit said, “The clip Spears and Haddish asked Jane to watch in the recording booth allegedly seemed innocuous at first, if a little strange: a group of coeds were arguing over a subway sandwich. But then the coeds began eating the sandwich in a suggestive manner from opposite ends, “moaning and making sexual noises as they both ate the sandwich in a manner that simulated the act of fellatio.”

Jane said she was asked to perform in the presence of Spears, who was in charge of filming. Haddish allegedly paid her $100 and tried something similar next year with her brother. She made John film a scene in his underwear that ended up appearing as a segment on the platform Funny or Die, titled Through a Pedophile’s Eyes.

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When approached, Funny or Die told The Daily Beast that the video’s conceptualization or development was not done by them “It was uploaded to the site as user-generated content and was removed in 2018 immediately after becoming aware of its existence”, the statement added.