Drag Race's Shangela hit with sexual assault lawsuit again: Adult film star raped in ‘semi-conscious state’?

Less than a year after past allegations, a new lawsuit alleges that RuPaul's Drag Race alum Shangela raped Eric Poff (Dakota Payne).

Chantaize Darius Jeremy Pierce, better known as reality TV RuPaul’s Drag Race star Shangela, has been sued yet again over alleged sexual assault claims. According to PEOPLE, Eric Poff, who is known as Dakota Payne in the adult film industry, filed a lawsuit on Monday, Feb 24, in the New York County Supreme Court, accusing Pierce of misconduct in light of similar allegations levelled against him last year.

Chantaize Darius Jeremy Pierce (DJ), known as Drag Race star Shangela, is facing new sexual assault allegations. (Instagram / @itsshangela)

RuPaul's Drag Race star allegedly raped plaintiff when he was inebriated and couldn't consent

Poff claims to have finally “gained the courage to come forward” after Darius Jeremy ‘DJ’ Pierce infamously made headlines last year. Much like the past accusations, the plaintiff claims that the alleged inappropriate happened in October 2017 while both parties were filming Hurricane Biance in Manhattan. The lawsuit suggests that as Poff and Pierce got drinks together at the bar, the former consumed one or two of them, which are believed to have been “‘spiked’ with a drug.”

The filing states, “Plaintiff has this information and belief because he has no memory of events between consuming the drink and becoming semi-conscious in a hotel room.”

New sexual assault allegations against Shangela quite similar to past claims

Poff’s claims of not being fully in control after possibly being drugged fall in line with how Drag star Shangela was previously accused of sexually assaulting multiple alleged victims despite their being inebriated to consent. The accusations date back to 2012 stretching ahead to a period of six years.

Eric Poff similarly alleges that he woke up to find himself in the hotel room “bent over a bed being anally penetrated without consent” by an unknown man “with Pierce watching them from the corner of the room.” Shortly after that, Pierce is also believed to have “anally penetrated” the plaintiff without his consent. The accused allegedly also sent Eric money.

“Accordingly, Defendants violated [The Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law] by sexually assaulting Plaintiff, which is a felony and an act motivated, at least in part, by Plaintiff’s gender,” the filing established.

Dakota Payne seeking damages

The plaintiff is pushing for a jury trial and requesting to be awarded punitive and compensatory damages He also wants Pierce to pay his legal fees and “all other amounts owed to him,” along with “such other and further legal and equitable relief as may be found appropriate and as the Court may deem just or equitable.”

How DJ/Shangela responded to previous rape allegations

Although DJ has yet to respond to the new filing that comes less than a year after the past allegations, his lawyer previously denied all accusations of sexual assault in a letter to Rolling Stone, slamming them as “false and unsupported by any evidence or reliable witness testimony.”

Prior to that, former Drag Race production assistant Daniel McGarrigle also sued Pierce, accusing him of rape and gender violence. However, the case was dismissed “with prejudice.”