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'Lawman' Steven Seagal facing lawsuit, sexual assault charges leveled

By April MacIntyre Apr 14, 2010, 5:40 GMT

(FILE) A file picture dated 02 August 2004 shows US actor Steven Seagal arriving at the airport of Sofia, Bulgaria. According to media reports on 13 April 2010, Seagal is sued for sexual harassment by his 23-year-old former assistant Kayden Nguyen from Los Angeles. EPA/ANTON CHALAKOV

A&E reality TV star Steven Seagal is being sued by a woman who claims he sexually assaulted her when she was employed by him.

Seagal's lawyer called the sexual harassment suit "a complete fabrication" and said the woman was sacked for using drugs.

According to the lawsuit, Kayden Nguyen, 23, responded to a job posting on Craigslist for an executive assistant job at Seagal's production company in February and was flying between Los Angeles and New Orleans, where his reality TV show "Steven Seagal: Lawman" is filmed for the A&E network.

"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,' " the suit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court said.

"Ms. Nguyen decided to take a wait and see attitude," the suit said.

Nguyen alleges that during the next five days, she was sexually assaulted three times by Seagal at a house "many miles from New Orleans in a remote rural area of Jefferson Parish," the suit said.

The legal action also claims Seagal employed "two young Russian 'attendants' on staff who were available for his sexual needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."

Allegedly the first night Nguyen was with Seagal saw the actor demand a massage from her. "He then proceeded to treat Ms. Nguyen as his sex toy."

After alleged repeated sexual advances and being ignored by his production staff, Nguyen finally left the house in a taxi on Sunday, February 28. She alleges Seagal chased her as she left.

"As Ms. Nguyen ran to the cab, Mr. Seagal followed a few steps behind, shining a flashlight with a gun attached to it," it said.

She was so much "in fear for her personal safety that she left behind everything that she owned, including her car keys, her laptop, her clothes and hundreds of dollars worth of makeup," it said.

Interestingly, Nguyen contends that Seagal has a "unique physiological reaction to sexual arousal," which Nguyen "can and will describe in great detail."

Seagal's attorney Marty Singer said the suit was a "ridiculous and absurd claim by a disgruntled ex-employee who was fired for using illegal narcotics." Her claims "are a complete fabrication without a scintilla of truth," he said.

The A&E reality series that Seagal stars in is reveals his second career as a lawman in Louisiana.

"Steven has a very close relationship with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office and I'm proud to have him as part of our team," Sheriff Newell Normand said last year in a news release announcing the show. Normand called a news conference for 2:30 p.m. Wednesday to discuss the allegations in the lawsuit, according to sheriff's spokesman, Col. John Fortunato.