By Emily Richardson | Celebrity | March 18, 2024 |
By Emily Richardson | Celebrity | March 18, 2024 |
Trigger warning: graphic details of sexual assault.
RuPaul’s Drag Race star Shangela has been accused of sexual assault by five different men. The allegations are detailed in a Rolling Stone exposé published this morning. Shangela, whose real name is Darius Jeremy ‘DJ’ Pierce, is a drag queen and actress also known for HBO’s We’re Here, the movie A Star is Born, and their guest roles on Broad City, Community, and Glee.
This isn’t the first time Pierce has faced sexual assault allegations. Last year, a production assistant on We’re Here, Daniel McGarrigle, filed a police report and civil lawsuit against the drag star, accusing him of rape:
McGarrigle, 40, alleged in the lawsuit he “threw up” from drinks provided by Pierce before he woke up to the drag star “rubbing his penis against his buttocks, attempting to insert himself into his anus.” The lawsuit claimed Pierce thrust inside of McGarrigle while saying, “I know you want it, and you’re going to take it.”
McGarrigle’s suit was settled last month, the case was dismissed, and the details remain undisclosed.
Rolling Stone began their investigation in November 2022. There are five accusers, all of whom were between the ages of 18 and 23 at the time of the alleged assaults. Pierce is currently 42, and the incidents took place from 2012 to 2018. Three of the victims are aspiring drag queens, and all of them were “acutely aware of Shangela’s celebrity status.” In each case, the accusers say they were too drunk to consent to sex with Pierce.
All five accusers are queer and have participated in or watched drag shows. They all grappled with the decision to come forward because of all the anti-drag/anti-trans laws in conservative states. They wanted to make it clear - Pierce is accountable for his actions, not the queer community.
Pierce and his lawyer tell Rolling Stone that he’s innocent, but Pierce admits he met with four of the sources on the dates of the alleged assaults. He doesn’t recall meeting the fifth accuser. Here’s a rundown of all five men and their stories:
Helmer
Helmer was 20 when he met Pierce at an LA bar in 2017. Pierce was 36. A few nights later, Pierce took Helmer out for a “late dinner”. The drag queen bought Helmer a mojito, and, in a complaint filed with the LAPD in 2023, Helmer says he “does not have any recollection of the events that occurred after he drank the Mojito.” His next memory is waking up naked in Pierce’s bed:
When he asked Shangela what happened, “Pierce responded with, ‘We had sex, and there was another guy involved that you brought in.’ [Helmer] asked who that other guy was, and Pierce stated he did not know, ‘but you were really into it.’”
Helmer took a few days to realize he was sexually assaulted, but, by then, he didn’t think he had enough evidence to report it to the police. He finally filed a report in June 2023 after reading about similar accusations against Pierce.
Pierce’s lawyer calls Helmer’s accusations “bogus”, and points to the fact that Helmer texted Pierce two months after the alleged incident. Helmer admits he texted Pierce because he was desperately looking for an apartment after breaking up with his boyfriend.
Edward Ramirez
Ramirez claims Pierce assaulted him after a night out in Texas in 2018. At the time, Ramirez was 21 and Pierce was 36. Here’s what Ramirez wrote a few hours after the assault:
“[Pierce] shoved me on the floor in a closet and tried to penetrate me. Honestly, had he just asked, I probably would’ve had consensual sex with him. But getting shoved into a closet and thrown on the floor was just uncomfortable and seemed like an abuse of power.”
Unlike the other accusers, Ramirez provided his own drinks that evening. He says he chose not to go to the authorities because, as a Black queer man, he doesn’t trust the Texas police.
Checri
Checri, then 18, met Pierce, then 37, while clubbing in London in 2017. Back at Pierce’s hotel room, Checri says Pierce attempted to anally penetrate him against his will: “It was very animalistic, taking advantage of someone.” The alleged assault happened just moments after Checri threw up on Pierce’s bed:
“I just remember very clearly a sequence of events, which was me being on the bed,” Checri says. “Then being sick on the bed, everywhere. [I remember] feeling it, and seeing it, and smelling it. I very viscerally remember that. And then, whilst that was happening, like, an attempt at penetration.”
Again, Checri did not report the incident because he was distrustful of the police.
Zachary
Zachary, “a self-described Drag Race fan and part-time drag queen,” met Shangela at a meet and greet in New Orleans back in 2015. He was 23, Pierce was 34. Before Zachary blacked out, Zachary remembers Pierce telling him they were doing “two more shots”. His next memory is being jolted awake by Pierce and another man trying to penetrate him:
“I heard Shangela say, ‘Stick it in him,’ and I quickly said ‘No,’” Zachary recalls. “I am pretty sure that [the unidentified man] didn’t do anything, but I passed out again, so I am not positive.”
Zachary says he didn’t really get that he was assaulted until he read about Daniel McGarrigle’s allegations against Pierce:
“I read Danny’s story and [realized] it was something [bigger]. When [Danny’s story] matched almost identically to what happened to me, I was like, ‘Oh, OK. So, that was not great.’”
RoyLee Soliz
This was back in 2012. Soliz was 20 and Pierce was 31. The pair hung out after Pierce’s performance at a Pride event and ended up back at his hotel room:
“I just remember trying to sleep and closing my mouth when she tried to put her penis in my mouth,” Soliz says. “I really didn’t have any strength to tell her to stop or that I didn’t want to have sex with her…. She had gotten me so drunk that I couldn’t say no, and I was in no way mentally OK enough to feel strong or demand her to stop what she was doing.“I remember I woke up, felt so nasty, and just got in the shower and walked out of that hotel thinking it was my fault for being drunk and staying the night.”
Pierce says he has no memory of meeting Soliz.
Rolling Stone also spoke with Joel, Shangela’s former “off-the-books assistant” with whom he also had a sexual relationship. Joel said that he watched Pierce drink with “numerous young skinny men”, and witnessed these men go with the drag star to his hotel rooms, hot tubs, and friend’s apartments:
“DJ liked to drink,” he says about Pierce. “The name of the game was how many people could he get drunk. How many people could he get to come to the afterparty in his hotel room, and then they’d still be drinking there.”
Pierce’s lawyer tells Rolling Stone that Joel is “not credible; he only wants attention.” He also denies Joel worked for Pierce.
Rolling Stone reiterates that their sources are “bothered” by conservative anti-drag bills and transphobia. They worried that their allegations against Pierce could be “misguided cudgel for conservative censorship of drag queens.” Checri says:
“[Pierce is] a huge spokesperson for a community in which they have hurt quite a few people. I would hope that people take this kind of thing seriously. It is a big relief that, finally, this conversation is starting to happen.”