‘Silicon Valley’ Actor T.J. Miller Accused of Sexual Assault
Silicon Valley actor T.J. Miller has been accused of sexual assault by a woman who knew him in college, The Daily Beast reports. The alleged victim, who remains anonymous, said the assault occurred during their brief relationship in 2001.
“He just tried a lot of things without asking me, and at no point asked me if I was all right,” the woman said. Over the course of two separate incidents, she remembers Miller choking her, punching her and penetrating her with a beer bottle. The Daily Beast corroborated parts of her story by speaking with associates and classmates from George Washington University (GW).
In a statement, Miller and his wife Kate denied the allegations. “[The accuser] began again to circulate rumors online once [my and Kate’s] relationship became public,” Miller wrote. “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.”
The alleged victim said the first incident with Miller took place in the fall of 2001, when he was a student at GW and she was taking classes. The two met doing comedy and started a relationship. One night while the two were having sex, Miller punched her in the face, fracturing a tooth and bloodying her lip. “I couldn’t bring myself [at the time] to believe this had happened,” she told The Daily Beast. “It was me not wanting it to be true.”
A few days later, the two met again. “We started to fool around, and very early in that, he put his hands around my throat and closed them, and I couldn’t breathe,” the alleged victim remembered. She told The Daily Beast that she was “audibly choking” to the point where her roommates knocked on the door to see if she was ok. She says Miller also penetrated her with a bottle without her consent during this encounter.
Approximately a year later, she told GW’s campus police about the incidents. They directed her to a student court proceeding. The University later told her “the issue had been resolved” but did not provide further details. Some sources told The Daily Beast that Miller was subsequently “expelled after he graduated.”
GW declined to comment on the case, citing federal privacy law.
Miller recently left Silicon Valley after four seasons on the show. According to The Daily Beast, he is slated to appear in upcoming movies with Kristen Stewart and Ryan Reynolds.
Miller is not the first high-profile comedian to face accusations of sexual misconduct this year: Last month, Louis C.K. was accused of sexual harassment by five women. In a statement, the comedian later admitted, “the stories are true.”