In a lawsuit filed Monday, a 23-year-old woman charged actor Steven Seagal (who you may remember, or not, from such films as Above the Law, Hard to Kill, and Under Siege) with sex trafficking, harassment and wrongful termination. Kayden Nguyen alleges that Seagal hires women as "executive assistants" but that their primary duty is to act as "sex-on-demand attendants." This, it turns out, is Against the Law.
Nguyen alleges that she met Seagal in February after answering a Craigslist ad for an executive assistant. (I wasn't aware that celebrities found their assistants though Craigslist, but maybe they do.) After several interviews, she was told she would have one final interview with Seagal, after which (if hired) she would go with him to New Orleans, where Seagal is currently taping a reality show.
Nguyen admittedly had some reason to suspect that all was not right before even leaving for New Orleans. The "final interview" allegedly took place on Seagal's private jet while it was on the runway, and consisted of the question "Are you sure you wouldn't mind helping my wife around the house if she asked you to do something?" Nguyen said she would "have no problem" with that, upon which Seagal signaled for takeoff. For a brief moment, "Ms. Nguyen believed that she had found the dream job of a lifetime," but that dream was brief indeed:
25. As the jet taxied down the runway, Mr. Seagal turned to Ms. Nguyen and said, "I'm a family man, and I live with my wife, but she wouldn't care if you were my lover." Ms. Nguyen was startled, and gave Mr. Seagal a look of disbelief. Mr. Seagal continued, "My wife wouldn't mind if you and I had a sexual relationship." Those words left Mr. Seagal's mouth as the jet lifted off the runway.
The complaint does not explain why the words "see ya" did not leave Ms. Nguyen's mouth as soon as the jet taxied to a stop in New Orleans, but maybe it was not that easy.
According to Nguyen, Seagal already had two "assistants," young Russian women whose duties seemed to consist of assisting Seagal in having sex with them. Nguyen says it became clear she was to replace one of them, and for the next several days Seagal treated her as his "sex toy," despite her objections and complaints she made to other employees. She claims she was unable to escape for a full week, until February 28, when she was able to "coax a cab driver to come to the far away [sic] house." The complaint alleges that Seagal chased Nguyen out of the house, "carrying a flashlight with a gun attached to it," and that she barely made it to the cab ahead of him. Then, "Ms. Nguyen told the driver that the man following her was Steven Seagal, and to please get out of there as fast as he could. . . . As Mr. Seagal shined the flashlight in the cab driver's face, the driver waived [sic] to Mr. Seagal, said he was a fan, and began to drive off."
Now, there are a number of unanswered questions raised by the above. Why not get in a cab and leave earlier, as she was ultimately able to do on February 28? The complaint says the cab took her to stay with some friends - why not call one of them if a cab would not show up? Why does Steven Seagal have a flashlight with a gun attached to it, as opposed to the other way around? If fleeing for your life, why take the time to tell the driver that you are "being followed by Steven Seagal"? If Steven Seagal stuck a flashlight with a gun attached to it in your face, would you wave and say "I'm a big fan"? And if held as a sex slave, why file a civil lawsuit but not also a criminal complaint? I'm keeping an open mind, but these questions may prove Hard to Answer.
Possibly foreseeing that some might have doubts about her credibility, Nguyen alleges that she would be able to identify what she calls a "unique physiological reaction" that Seagal has when he is aroused, although the complaint did not suggest what that reaction might be.
Steven Seagal last appeared here in 2007, after he demanded an apology from the FBI for ruining his film career. It could be that this is part of the same conspiracy, but more likely it is a case of someone being either Out for Justice or maybe just Hard Up for Cash.
