Lawyers IN Hollywood Sex Case Issue Apologies to Producer Garth Ancier, Pay Seven Figures in Damages Settlement

SBI’s owners, Steve Polak & Randy Petee, were the investigative team hired by the law firm Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell, LLC who represented Ancier.

Los Angeles Times – June 8, 2015

Former attorneys for a man who accused several prominent Hollywood figures of sexually abusing him have issued formal apologies to two of the accused, saying the allegations were false.

Representatives of television producer Garth Ancier and former Disney executive David Neuman provided copies Sunday of the apology letters sent by Hawaii-based attorney Mark Gallagher and Florida-based attorney Jeffrey Herman, who represented Michael Egan in lawsuits against Ancier and Neuman that claimed they had sexually abused him when he was a teenager.

Davidson Goldin, a spokesman for Ancier, said the apologies came along with an “undisclosed monetary payment in the seven figures.”

Egan dropped the suits against Ancier and Neuman last June. In turn, Ancier and Neuman filed their own suits accusing Egan, Herman and Gallagher accusing them of malicious prosecution.

In the apology sent to Ancier and Neuman last week, Herman wrote, “Based on what I know now, I believe that I participated in making what I now know to be untrue and provably false allegations against you. Had I known what I learned after filing the lawsuits, I would never have filed these claims against you. I deeply regret the pain, suffering and damages the lawsuits and publicity have caused you, and your family, friends, and colleagues.”

Herman noted that he had dropped Egan as a client two months after filing the complaints and that he had “resolved this matter with compensation to you.”

Gallagher wrote in a separate apology letter, “Unfortunately, I now do not believe that the allegations in the lawsuit were true and accurate. I deeply regret the unjustified pain, suffering and significant damage the lawsuit and publicity has caused Mr. Ancier, and his family, friends, and colleagues.”

Egan pled guilty to fraud in an unrelated federal case in North Carolina this year, in which he was accused of persuading people to invest in various projects by giving them false information about his background, and then using the money to fund his personal expenses.

Neuman said in a statement that the lawsuit against him “was completely fraudulent and filled with whole cloth lies.”

Ancier said in a separate statement that the apologies offer final proof “that a convicted scam artist’s claims about me were entirely made up.”

“I said on day one this was all absolutely false and I’m certainly pleased that’s now been admitted by the lawyers responsible for transforming absurd fabrications into a real-life nightmare for me,” he wrote.