The man who last year accused Star
Trek star George Takei of sexual assault in 1981 is standing by
his claims.
Responding to an article published by
The Observer which claims that he “changed” his story,
Scott Brunton told ABC News that he is not walking back his story.
In November, Brunton told The
Hollywood Reporter that Takei in 1981 groped him after a night of
drinking. Brunton, then 23, said that he met Takei at a gay bar when
Takei was 44 years old. After Brunton broke up with his boyfriend,
Takei offered to cheer him up with a night out on the town.
Brunton told The
Hollywood Reporter that he “passed out” in a beanbag
chair in Takei's apartment.
“The next thing I remember I was
coming to and he had my pants down around my ankles and he was
groping my crotch and trying to get my underwear off and feeling me
up at the same time, trying to get his hands down my underwear,"
Brunton said. "I came to and said, 'What are you doing?!' I
said, 'I don't want to do this.'”
Brunton left the apartment and drove
home.
The Observer talked with
Brunton, people close to Takei, medical toxicologists and legal
experts in sex offenses to conclude that “this story needs to be
recast significantly.”
“Brunton, a sympathetic and
well-intentioned man, would go on to walk back key details and let
slip that, in his effort to be listened to, he'd fabricated some
things,” The
Observer
wrote. “This and other evidence would indicate a
hard-to-swallow conclusion: We – both public and press – got the
George Takei assault story wrong.”
The piece notes that Brunton did not
accuse Takei of drugging him until two days after his initial claims.
A toxicologist disagreed. “To recover so speedily doesn't sound
like the actions of a drug,” the expert said.
The Observer also noted
inconsistencies in interviews Brunton gave, specially that in later
accounts he left out any touching.
Speaking with ABC
News, Brunton reiterated that Takei had groped him.
“In my mind, there are so many
different definitions of groping – there are different degrees,”
he told the outlet. “When you're yanking on someone's front and
back of their underwear, you can't avoid contact.”
Takei, now 81, has said that such
behavior is inconsistent with his values.
“As I stated before, I do not
remember Mr. Brunton or any of the events he described from 40 years
ago, but I do understand that this was part of a very important
national conversation that we as a society must have, painful as it
might be,” Takei said in a tweet in response to The Observer's
story. “I do not bear Mr. Brunton any ill will, and I wish him
peace.”
Brunton also told ABC News that all he
wants is an apology.
“I have friends around the world,
people I went to school with, basically calling me a liar,” he
said. “It's really, really disturbing.”