RuPaul’s Drag Race star, Shangela accused of multiple sexual assaults in bombshell investigation months after TV star denied rape allegation

RuPaul’s Drag Race star, Shangela, has been accused of multiple sexual assaults in new bombshell investigation 10 months after the TV personality was accused of raping a former production assistant.

The drag star, whose real name is Darius Jeremy Pierce, 42, has been hit by claims from four people who claim he sexually assaulted them or attempted to have sex with them when they were too intoxicated to consent with a fifth person claiming Pierce attempted to penetrate him anally in a bathroom closet without his consent.

Pierce has denied all allegations through his lawyer Andrew Brettler who in a legal letter to Rolling Stone, called the claims ‘false and unsupported by any evidence or reliable witness testimony’ – adding: ‘[Pierce] adamantly denies ever engaging in nonconsensual sex.

In May 2023, Pierce was accused of raping a former production assistant, Daniel McGarrigle, 40, who worked on the HBO show We’re Here after a drunken crew party in 2020. Pierce denied all allegations, and the civil suit was dismissed without prejudice in February after all parties reached a settlement.

One accuser named Helmer, 27, filed a police report against Pierce, claiming he was sexually assaulted aged 20 following a night out in 2017.

Helmer filed the complaint in Los Angeles on June 1, 2023, though due to a procedural error, the police department didn’t return his report until December 20.

In Helmer’s complaint, he told police he reported his allegations after he read Pierce had been accused of rape by McGarrigle.

Helmer told police he met Pierce in 2017 while working at a popular Los Angeles bar, claiming the pair exchanged numbers and social media accounts.

In Instagram messages seen by the publication, Pierce, then 36, writes: ‘I’m thinking we should hang out. Let me take u to a late dinner.’

The pair went for drinks the next night with Helmer’s complaint alleging: ‘Pierce bought a Mojito for [Helmer]. [He] stated he does not drink Mojito’s [sic] but continued to have it out of respect for Pierce.’

Helmer told police he ‘does not have any recollection of the events that occurred after he drank the Mojito’ – but recalled ‘waking up completely naked on a bed and believed to be at Pierce’s residence.’

The complaint reads: ‘[Helmer] asked Pierce what happened last night and why he was naked. Pierce responded with, “We had sex, and there was another guy involved that you brought in.”

‘[Helmer] asked who that other guy was, and Pierce stated he did not know, “but you were really into it.”’

Helmer told police it ‘took him a few days to realize that he was sexually assaulted’ but by the time he realized, he ‘believed’ he did not have enough evidence to file a police report.

Brettler denies Helmer’s ‘absurd’ allegation and says Pierce and Helmer went back to Mr Pierce’s house, where they engaged in consensual sex with a third man who they met at the bar.

‘Critically, [Helmer] continued to contact Mr. Pierce in the months following the encounter. [Helmer] never once mentioned that Mr. Pierce mistreated him, let alone sexually assaulted him.’

On May 4, 2017, less than two months after the alleged assault, Helmer texted Pierce to ask for help finding accommodation – which Helmer says was sent ‘in desperation’ after breaking up with his ex.

Brettler adds: ‘No one from law enforcement has ever contacted Mr Pierce or his representatives about [Helmer’s] bogus claims.’

Edward Ramirez, 27, alleges Pierce assaulted him in a walk-in bathroom closet following a night out in Texas in 2018 when he was aged 21, and Pierce was 36.

They met at a bar on September 10 and discussed meeting the following evening per Instagram messages seen by the publication.

Ramirez first claimed on blog ATRL a few hours after the alleged assault on September 11: ‘[Pierce] shoved me on the floor in a closet and tried to penetrate me.

‘Honestly, had he just asked, I probably would’ve had consensual sex with him. But getting shoved into a closet and thrown on the floor was just uncomfortable and seemed like an abuse of power.’

Ramirez told the publication he was ‘very confident I was clear with my ‘nos.’ I was declining advances. He still kept trying anyway. When I shared the story initially, I was showing grace and mercy that I wouldn’t have shown had I taken more time to process what happened.’

Ramirez said he got his own drinks during the night and said he didn’t go to the police as he distrusted authorities due to being a black, queer man.

Ramirez texted Pierce after the alleged assault, writing on September 16: ‘Are you still in Dallas?’ with Ramirez claiming the message was sent to try and arrange a meeting between Pierce and a drag queen friend of Ramirez’s/

Pierce wrote in a text sent on September 17 at 4 a.m.: ‘So ur going to bed or r we hanging out.’

Ramirez said: ‘Lol hanging out where!! It’s 4am haha’ – with the accuser claiming he believed the messages were a ‘polite rejection’ of Pierce.

Pierce’s first defence to BuzzFeed News – who were set to publish the allegations last year before the website shuttered – was a claim that accusers were motivated by McGarrigle.

However, Ramirez made his allegations in 2018 four years before McGarrigle accused Pierce of rape.

A London-based musician named Checri, now 24, claims Pierce attempted non-consensual anal penetration in November 2017 when he was 18.

Cheri claims to have met Pierce, then 37, while partying at the ‘Hype Hop’ event at London’s Cirque le Soir nightclub during the star’s birthday week.

He claims Pierce was buying ’rounds of drinks’ for people including himself, before the pair returned to Pierce’s hotel room at the Clermont London Hotel with a group of people.

The other guests left, leaving Checri and Pierce alone in the room, with Checri saying he was so drunk he vomited in Pierce’s bed.

He alleges: ‘I just remember very clearly a sequence of events, which was me being on the bed. Then being sick on the bed, everywhere. [I remember] feeling it, and seeing it, and smelling it. I very viscerally remember that. And then, whilst that was happening, like, an attempt at penetration.

‘I was so ill that I was throwing up in the bed. It’s not like I was in control of anything that was going on. I felt so humiliated by the fact that I felt like an accessory that was available at a certain time.’

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