Actor T.J. Miller, best known for staring in the HBO hit Silicon Valley, has been accused of assault and sexual assault by a former college classmate, according to The Daily Beast.
The alleged victim, who is given the pseudonym Sarah in the article, says that Miller punched her in the mouth during sex, a few months into a relationship that began in fall of 2001. On another occasion a little while later, she alleges that he choked her during sex, penetrated her anally, and penetrated her with a beer bottle—all without consent.
The Daily Beast said that it “has corroborated details of her story” with five others who were affiliated with George Washington University, where Miller and the alleged victim were students, in addition numerous other associates of the two.
Miller and his wife Kate released a statement (printed in full below) denying the allegations and calling the accusations, “nothing more than an unfortunate resurgence of her lies designed to wreak havoc on two happily married people in the public eye.”
Miller played software developer and start-up founder Erlich Bachman on Silicon Valley, from which he previously announced that he would be leaving after four seasons.
He met the alleged victim through a comedy troupe while in college.
The victim admits to being intoxicated at the time of the first alleged assault, and the next morning when she asked about her injuries (a broken tooth and bloody lip), Miller allegedly told her she had fallen down while drunk. During the second encounter, the victim claims that housemates knocked on the door to check on her because they were concerned about the sounds coming from the bedroom.
The housemates corroborated this account with The Daily Beast.
“She looked like she had been through a rough night—I recall seeing bruises [on Sarah],” Duffy, one of the housemates told The Daily Beast. “One roommate asked if she wanted to go to the police. Others offered to take her to the hospital, given how she looked.”
The alleged victim did not go to the police immediately following the alleged assault. “I was not ready to process what was happening [the prior year], and I have spent a lot of time in my life apologizing for not having shouted ‘no,’ and for not having told my roommates to get him out of here,” the alleged victim told The Daily Beast.
Nearly a year later, the alleged victim went to the campus police and the allegations were handled by the “student court,” where both former roommates testified, along with the alleged victim. The victim does not know the outcome of the proceeding, other than being told by the school that the matter had been resolved.
She said that she came forward with these allegations because of the recent series of reports about sexual assault and harassment involving Hollywood and media figures like Harvey Weinstein.
College friends of Miller, some of whom spoke on behalf of Miller in student court, said that Miller was respectful of women and “couldn’t have done this.”
T.J. and Kate Miller’s full statement is below:
“We met this woman over a decade ago while studying together in college, she attempted to break us up back then by plotting for over a year before making contradictory claims and accusations. She attempted to discredit both of our voices and use us against one another by trying to portray Kate to be a continuous abuse victim of T.J. (further efforts to hurt the two of us). She was asked to leave our university comedy group because of worrisome and disturbing behavior, which angered her immensely, she then became fixated on our relationship, and began telling people around campus ‘I’m going to destroy them’ & ‘I’m going to ruin him.’
We are confident that a full consideration of accounts from and since that time will shed light and clarity on the true nature of not only this person’s character, and also on the real facts of the matter.
We stand together in stating this is nothing more than an unfortunate resurgence of her lies designed to wreak havoc on two happily married people in the public eye.
She began again to circulate rumors online once our relationship became public.
Sadly she is now using the current climate to bandwagon and launch these false accusations again. It is unfortunate that she is choosing this route as it undermines the important movement to make women feel safe coming forward about legitimate claims against real known predators.
We stand together and will not allow this person to take advantage of a serious movement toward gender equality by allowing her to use this moment to muddy the water with an unrelated personal agenda. We feel we all have an obligation now more than ever to prevent people from using reporters to spin lies into headlines, and focus instead on what is real.
We both champion and continue to stand up for people everywhere who have truly suffered injustice seeking to have justice brought into their lives.”
