Things just went from bad to worse for Shangela (AKA Darius Jeremy “DJ” Pierce). The RuPaul’s Drag Race alum was hit with a lawsuit by a former production assistant from HBO’s We’re Here who accused her of rape. It prompted HBO to fully recast the show, and Shangela quietly slipped away from the public eye.
Last month, we learned that her accuser dropped the lawsuit against Shangela, seemingly signaling an end to her legal trouble. Now, she just got rocked with a fresh set of allegations.
According to a bombshell report from Rolling Stone, five people have accused Shangela of sexual assault.
Major accusations against Shangela
The outlet interviewed five survivors who described interactions with Shangela ranging from 2012 to 2017. In many of the stories, the victims described getting way too inebriated to consent to sex. In some instances, the victims weren’t even old enough to legally drink alcohol.
For example, one survivor named RoyLee Soliz recounted meeting Shangela at a meet-and-greet in Texas. RoyLee was 20 at the time, which would mean Shangela was around 30. Allegedly, the two of them got drunk after the meet-and-greet, and Shangela invited him back to his hotel room. RoyLee said Shangela sexually assaulted him once they were back in the hotel room.
“I just remember trying to sleep and closing my mouth when she (Shangela) tried to put her penis in my mouth,” he recounted. “I really didn’t have any strength to tell her to stop or that I didn’t want to have sex with her … She had gotten me so drunk that I couldn’t say no, and I was in no way mentally OK enough to feel strong or demand her to stop what she was doing.”
Shangela’s attorney, Andrew Bettler, denied the claims. They claimed that Shangela never met RoyLee, and denied any wrongdoing. According to the lawyer, Shangela never had “nonconsensual sex” with anyone. However, four other victims shared similar stories to RoyLee’s experience.
In another story about Shangela, a victim named Helmer recalled meeting her at a Los Angeles bar in 2017. The two went out for drinks, and Helmer said that Shangela bought him a “mojito.” Somehow, that one “mojito” caused Helmer to black out, and he said he couldn’t recall anything that happened after drinking it. He claimed that the next thing he remembered was waking up naked in Shangela’s house.
Hesitant to speak out
One common thread among all of the victims is that they were hesitant about coming forward due to the political climate surrounding drag queens. A few of them credited the We’re Here production assistant for sounding the horn on Shangela in last year’s lawsuit. In response to those claims, Shangela said the accuser was harming the LGBTQ+ community by “perpetuating damaging stereotypes.” Allegedly, it was actually Shangela who was harming the community.
“[Shangela is] a huge spokesperson for a community in which they have hurt quite a few people. I would hope that people take this kind of thing seriously,” one of the victims shared. “It is a big relief that, finally, this conversation is starting to happen.”
With all of these allegations in the air, it’s unclear what’s next for Shangela. We do know that one of her accusers filed a complaint with the Los Angeles Police Department in 2023 about their assault in 2017. This is likely just the very beginning of a reckoning.
