‘Charles in Charge’ star responds to Nicole Eggert’s allegations of child molestation
Former “Charles in Charge” star Scott Baio responded Saturday to allegations that he molested his former co-star Nicole Eggert when she was a minor.
Baio’s wife filmed the counterattack — launched after Eggert put out a series of tweets Saturday.
“Ask scottbaio what happened in his garage at his house when I was a minor. Creep,” Eggert tweeted, replying to a mention of Baio on Twitter.
She then accused Baio of digitally penetrating her beginning at age 14.
Eggert alleges that she was between 14 and 17 years old when the abuse took place, adding that she covered it up for years.
“It started when I was 14. Wasn’t a one-time deal,” she said.
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Baio issued a statement calling her claims “100 percent lies,” before appearing in a Facebook live video filmed by his wife.
Baio acknowledged that the pair did have sex, but claims it was consensual, and that Eggert would have been at least 18 years old at the time of the encounter.
“I remember her calling me and asking me to come over and coming in my house one time, and seducing me,” Baio said into the camera.
“Any normal heterosexual, red-blooded American guy, the outcome would have been the same,” he said.
He played an audio recording of an interview Eggert gave to TheDirty.com, in which she described losing her virginity to Baio “way after” “Charles in Charge” was done. “It was years later,” Eggert can be heard saying.
Baio argues that since Eggert was born in 1972, and the show was completed in 1990, she would have no longer been a minor.
Eggert accused Baio in 2012 of sexually abusing her as a minor.
“I kept my mouth shut, because usually when false claims in the past have been made about me they just go away,” Baio said.
“But for some reason she will not let this one go away,” he added.
Baio slammed Eggert for making the claims on social media, rather than filing a complaint with police.
“If you have a claim, go to the police. There is a special unit there that handles this kind of stuff,” Baio said
“If you have a real claim, you go to the real people, not to social media where people like me get beat up,” he added.
Baio also insisted he would not have had unsupervised access to Eggert while filming “Charles In Charge.”
“When you have minors on the set, when they are not on the set working, they are in the classroom with the teacher, the teacher brings them to the set, and on the set is their parents, their teachers …” he said.
Baio, who has made headlines recently for his support of President Trump, said the Eggert’s accusations undermine real victims with “legitimate claims.”
The actor bolstered his defense Sunday, again maintaining that Eggert is “deliberately lying” to gain publicity.
In a Facebook post, Baio provided what he claimed was proof in the form of a letter his attorneys sent to the “The Dr. Oz Show.”
The actor alleged that Eggert attempted to pitch her story to the show, but was shut down after production concluded she was lying based on evidence provided by Baio’s attorneys, namely her interview with The Dirty.com.
“The evidence (the letter) contains proves beyond doubt that she initiated our one and only sexual contact and that it was well after she turned 18,” he wrote. “Only after Nicole Eggert was proven to be dishonest in her ‘sex at 17’ allegations did she create a new story about sexual contact at an even younger age.”