The suicide attempt by comedian Carrot Top occurred as he faced an unfolding legal case involving allegations that he sent unwanted sexual material to a teenager, gave him alcohol, and later exploited him, according to multiple reports and legal documents.
However, the legal team for Carrot Top, born Scott Thompson, has described the lawsuit and salacious court filings as extortion and blackmail by a serial litigator looking to get money out of the comedian in statements to a Florida court.
The suicide attempt happened four days after 25-year-old Zachary Defazio made a statement as part of a lawsuit filed by another person that said when he was 19 he met Thompson, who was 56 at the time, through Grindr. He used his fame and money to gain trust before plying the then-teenager with alcohol and engaging in non-consensual sexual acts. That filing included graphic text messages that claimed to be from Thompson to Defazio.
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“I am a victim of Scott Thompson,” Defazio said in the filing. “That is not a theory.”
The lawsuit that contained Defazio’s statement was filed by Brian Evans in Florida’s Broward County civil court in early August. Evans, a singer who had opened for Thompson and recorded with him in the past, claimed in a lawsuit that sometime between 2022 and 2023, an unsolicited video was sent by Thompson showing him performing a sexual act on someone who looked much younger. Evans said this “shocked, disturbed and offended” him and caused “severe emotional distress.”
Evans is representing himself in the lawsuit, which is highly unusual in legal cases like this.
Lawyers for Thompson told the court in a September 3rd filing that Evans’ lawsuit and its filings are “a means to coerce payment.” Evans has been making “extortionate threats” through emails to Thompson’s lawyers, they said.
“When they are not accepted, he files malicious information within the court record as a means for ‘press’ to publicly regurgitate his submissions,” Thompson’s legal team wrote.
Evans’ latest alleged blackmail was threatening to submit to the court a USB drive containing a sexually explicit recording of Thompson for the press to pick up unless the comedian paid $500,000.
“This is not settlement communication,” representation for Thompson said in a court document. “On its face it is a malicious threat to expose Thompson to disgrace, and to expose a secret affecting him, with intent thereby to extort money under the guise of litigation.”
In another legal filing, Thompson’s lawyers included an earlier email from Evans, who said the parties could resolve litigation for $2 million. Thompson’s legal team also told the court that Evans had been declared a “vexatious litigant,” or someone who routinely files frivolous lawsuits, in a separate case.
Evans disputed the defendant’s characterization of his legal filings as extortion or blackmail, saying that his offer “was a final settlement proposal, not an extortionate demand.” He also told TMZ that the USB drive has already been deleted.
Thompson was rushed to a hospital on September 18th following the attempted suicide, outlets reported, including TMZ.
Representatives for Thompson told People on Saturday that he was in recovery. “Mr. Thompson is recovering in the hospital and is receiving the care and support he needs,” the representatives said. “His family and those closest to him are deeply grateful for the concern, prayers and respectfully ask for privacy.”
