“Hollywood royalty” faked 39 emails in $100 million gay rape lawsuit, lawyers say

Things just took a bizarre and unexpected turn in the story involving Rovier Carrington and his multimillion dollar lawsuit against Viacom.

Last May, the self-proclaimed member of “Hollywood royalty” and aspiring screenwriter filed a $100 million lawsuit claiming former MTV exec Brian Graden exploited him for sex. He also claimed he was raped by Brad Grey, the late chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, and was “blacklisted” at Viacom afterwards.

Variety reports:

Carrington claimed to have developed various ideas for reality shows, including one based on his own life, to be called “The Life of a Trendsetter.” He alleged that Graden used the promise of developing his ideas to exploit him for sex, and then stole his pitch for a gay dating show.

In January, Carrington, who says he’s the great-grandson of Three Stooges star Moe Howard, tried walking back everything, asking the court to forget the whole thing and drop the case entirely.

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But the defense isn’t quite ready to let the matter go. And with good reason.

In a letter sent to Judge Katherine Polk Failla yesterday, attorney Larry Stein says a forensic examination of Carrington’s computer found that he falsified 39 emails that he claimed corroborated the allegations against Graden and Grey.

“Not one of 39 contested emails that Plaintiff filed in support of his claims exists in native form in any of his accounts,” Stein’s letter states.

According to Variety:

Stein alleges that Carrington deleted two email accounts in order to try to thwart discovery in the case. According to the letter, Carrington’s attorney, Kevin Landau, had previously claimed that Carrington had deactivated the primary email account in question years earlier, and that he could not recover the original emails.

But the defense obtained discovery from Google, showing that the account was deactivated on June 19, 2018, a day after Carrington filed copies of the emails along with an amended complaint. Another email account, hosted by Microsoft, was also deleted in September 2018, well after notices to preserve evidence and the commencement of court-ordered discovery.

Carrington’s attorney dropped him as a client last September after Carrington refused to pay him for his work. Since then, Carrington has been representing himself.

In his letter to the judge this week, Stein says Carrington intentioned to “delete all traces of the email records that he filed as exhibits” in an effort to thwart the investigation.

Stein says he now plans to file a motion for monetary sanctions against the aspiring screenwriter for attempting to commit “fraud on the Court and spoliation” of evidence.

Related: “Hollywood royalty” sues Viacom, says he was raped and his gay reality TV idea was stolen