Drag Race Star Shangela Accused Of Sexually Assaulting 5 More People
This devastating and highly-detailed story from Rolling Stone is in addition to a separate 2023 lawsuit in which We’re Here production assistant Daniel McGarrigle accused Shangela of rape. Now, per RS, there are five more alleged victims of Shangela, one of whom filed a police report against the Drag Race star, whose real name is Darius Pierce. Here’s an excerpt from the RS report involving one of the alleged victims, who actually first came forward in 2018, more than four years before the McGarrigle lawsuit (read in full here):
Edward Ramirez, 27, claimed Pierce assaulted him after a night out in Texas in 2018. Rolling Stone reviewed Instagram conversations between Pierce and Ramirez. They met at a bar on Sept. 10 and discussed plans to hang out again on the evening of Sept. 11 into the early morning.
But Ramirez, who was then 21 years old, said the night of the 11th took a turn out of his control. He initially posted his allegations on ATRL, an internet blog space for celebrity culture and analysis, to describe his night. “[Pierce] shoved me on the floor in a closet and tried to penetrate me,” Ramirez wrote three days after the alleged assault. “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.”
“I’m very confident I was clear with my ‘nos.’ I was declining advances,” Ramirez tells Rolling Stone. “He still kept trying anyway. When I shared the story initially, I was showing grace and mercy that I wouldn’t have shown had I taken more time to process what happened.”
Unlike the other accusers, Ramirez says he provided his own drinks throughout the night. He adds he didn’t go to the police because he distrusted police authorities in Texas as a Black queer man.
Pierce’s initial defense to BuzzFeed News alleged that any accusers coming forward were motivated by McGarrigle in an attempt to strengthen his civil lawsuit. But Ramirez, who says he has never spoken to or met McGarrigle, posted his allegations in 2018, four years before McGarrigle initially came forward.
[Rolling Stone: Actor And Drag Star Shangela Accused of Multiple Sexual Assaults]
