A second 'Charles In Charge' star, Alexander Polinsky, has accused Scott Baio of abusive behavior.
A second Charles In Charge star, Alexander Polinsky, has accused Scott Baio of abusive behavior.
On Wednesday, Polinsky held a press conference detailing his accusations against Baio, alongside his lawyer, Lisa Bloom, and his Charles In Charge co-star, Nicole Eggert. Bloom also represents Eggert, who has alleged that Baio sexually abused her for years, starting when she was 14 years old, and he was 25. Baio has previously denied Eggert's sexual abuse allegations, saying she is "provably wrong" and "deliberately lying."
On Wednesday, Polinksy alleged that Baio verbally and physically abused him from the ages of 12 to 15 while he worked on the popular sitcom. Polinsky claimed that the abuse was in retaliation for witnessing Eggert sitting on Baio's lap, which is when he says the abuse started.
"I was so naive, I hopped on his lap, expecting to hear a story about Fonzi or Happy Days or something awesome," Polinsky alleges. "Instead of a story, Scott Baio threw me off of him and called me f***ot, while Nicole laughed. I felt confusion, shame, then fear when I realized I had judged the situation wrong. It was not innocent, it was sexual in nature."
Polinsky alleged that Baio then began a pattern of harassment and abusive behavior that was "unrelenting."
"He repeatedly told me about gay sex acts that he would tell me I would grow up to perform," Polinsky alleged. "Scott told me of his sexual conquests with young girls and co-stars of the show, at the same time trying to convince me that I was unlovable, defective, and branding me with the most vulgar words for homosexuals that exist."
Polinsky also alleged that Baio once pulled his pants down in front of 100 people, cut a hole in the wall of his private dressing room on set and exposed his genitals to him, and once threw a burning hot cup of tea in his face when he got angry that Polinsky startled him as a joke.
"I believe I was being subjected to mental torture in retaliation for what I had seen," Polinksy claimed, referring to him allegedly seeing Eggert sitting on Baio's lap.
Eggert cried as she supported Polinksy's allegations.
"I feel horrible and guilty that I didn't stand up to him at the time, but I myself was a child," Eggert said on Wednesday. "We were children. But Alex was consistently picked on, tripped, pushed around, berated with horrendous homosexual slurs, all because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and saw what he wasn't supposed to see."
ET spoke to Eggert at the conference, where she claimed adults on set witnessed Baio's alleged abusive behavior towards Polinsky.
"I don’t think anybody had the guts to tell Scott to stop," Eggert told ET's Kevin Frazier. "He ran that set, that was his set. He and his father were there. They made it very clear all the time that they were in charge. And it just, it wasn’t worth the screaming you were going to get if you said anything to them."
Baio was not present at a press conference on Wednesday held by his spokesperson, Brian Glicklich, and his civil lawyer, Jennifer McGrath, because his daughter is recovering from a severe flu, Glicklich said. Glicklich did, however, read a statement from Baio regarding the allegations against him.
"For reasons I don't understand, I am the target of false claims that threaten everything that is important in my life," the statement reads. "I'm hurt and angry, but mostly I am stunned that anyone can be so cruel, that someone can attack not just me, but my entire family, with lies. I will not let this continue unchallenged. I will use every ounce of strength and faith from God that I have to defeat the people behind this. This story is just beginning to be told."
McGrath also said that Baio was ready to take legal action against Polinsky and Eggert.
"I want to make something crystal clear, when this police investigation concludes and Scott is totally cleared of any wrongdoing, he will pursue any and all legal options available to him as to anyone who has knowingly made false claims against him," McGrath said.
Ahead of the conference, Glicklich accused Polinsky, Eggert and Bloom of "sleaze mongering."
"Nicole Eggert, Alexander Polinsky and their attorney have brought a media circus to town, complete with false allegations, misleading insinuations, and pure sleaze mongering," the statement reads. "If they wish to have a public conversation about their histories and motives, it will present a very different picture of why they are making these allegations."
Last week, Eggert filed a police report against Baio after going public with her allegations. An LAPD spokesperson told ET last Wednesday that Robbery-Homicide detectives met with Eggert and are investigating allegations that she made, confirming the allegations were against Baio.
Meanwhile, Baio has continuously denied Eggert's allegations, though he did say that the two had consensual sex “well after she turned 18." The 57-year-old actor previously denied Eggert's claim they had intercourse when she was 17, explaining that by her own admission in a previous interview, they had intercourse after the show was over -- the show ended in 1990, when Eggert was 18.
“We are genuinely appalled that Nicole Eggert continues to treat the police and the district attorney as though they are part of her personal publicity campaign," Glicklich said in a statement to ET in response to Eggert filing a police report. "The various and ever-changing charges made by her and Alexander Polinsky are false and baseless. We will look forward to a speedy and thorough investigation by law enforcement.”
During ET's sit-down with Eggert last week, she accused Baio of manipulating her due to her young age.
"I think that's a message people really need to understand," she said. "It's that he should have known better. He was the adult, I was the child. I had never been with a boy before. I had never been touched that way -- by anybody. And he played on my emotions, my hormones -- all of it."
Watch below:
RELATED CONTENT:
