Eric Poff, better known to the adult film world as Dakota Payne has broken his silence on why it took him almost a decade to come forward about the sexual assault allegations he has filed against RuPaul's Drag Race and We're Here alum Shangela Laquifa Wadley.
via: Out
"This whole experience feels like I won a lottery that I didn't want to sign up for," Poff tells Out, "that I never asked to join."
On Monday, Poff filed a complaint against Shangela — whose real name is Chantaize Darius Jeremy Pierce, informally known as DJ — in the state of New York with detailed allegations of sexual assault and rape. Twenty-four hours later, Poff, who is also known by his adult film star name Dakota Payne, shared his story exclusively with Out.
Poff and Pierce met in 2017 while filming Hurricane Bianca: From Russia With Hate. Poff was working as a production assistant, and Pierce starred in the movie as an actor.
"In working on the set, I got to know the cast and crew," Poff recalls. "A select number of the crew and cast had gone out a handful of times out in Hell's Kitchen to little gay bars, post-shooting hangouts. It wasn't until production had wrapped and I'd gone out to hang out with DJ one-on-one that this night happened."
Leading up to that night out, Poff describes having a "friendly co-worker" relationship with Pierce. "I'm a fan of Drag Race [and] I was a fan of DJ's, so I felt comfortable. I thought I felt safe, hanging out with someone who I thought that I knew based on limited experience working with them and having seen them on TV."
As detailed in Monday's complaint, Poff had "one or two drinks" before reportedly losing consciousness. Poff's next memory, as he recalls, took place inside a hotel room while he was anally penetrated by a man he did not know. Pierce, according to Poff, watched it unfold from the corner of the room. The complaint goes on to allege that "Pierce then anally penetrated Plaintiff without his consent."
"I don't think I was meant to gain any kind of consciousness," Poff says. "I don't think that I was meant to see anything or have any memory of experience. I think I was meant to have gone out, wake up, and be like, 'Oh, you were crazy, hahaha, that happened. Goodbye,' like he's done with so many other fans."
Pierce's defense, Poff says, alleges that the two "went out that night, met up with someone, had a threesome, and joked about it the next morning, and then Dakota suddenly just asked me for payment."
That isn't Poff's recollection of the events.
"I don't have any contact in my phone where it's like, 'Oh, remember that time we had a threesome with DJ.' There is no person in my life. I have no recollection. We did not meet up with anyone that night. That didn't happen. This John Doe person, I just have a recollection of what he looked like and what was being done when I did come to. He was not there in the morning when we allegedly woke up and joked around about it. There was no third person, there was no talks of, 'Oh, wasn't that crazy?' None of that."
Following the alleged assault, Poff recalled the experience with mutual friends in an attempt "to let people know what happened." However, Poff believes that things kept being swept under the rug. He often heard advice like,"You just need to hold your head up high and be ready to work in environments with people like that."
After years of silence and ruminating on the experience, running into Pierce at a bar in West Hollywood in 2024 was a turning point for Poff. "I was just festering and frustrated and felt powerless," Poff says. "I just happened to see him, and as calmly and as collected as I could, I went and I let him know how I felt."
Pierce's reaction pushed Poff to share his story. "It was the dismissal. It was the change of look in his eyes when he looked up from his table, surely thinking this was going to be another fan encounter, someone singing his praise. He recognized me and the shift in his face ... and then how easily it was for him to just say, 'I'm sorry you feel that way.' And the people at his table wouldn't even look up. They wouldn't look at me. Eyes down the whole time. The whole thing felt so awful. I just felt compelled to make a video because that's the only thing that was in my control."
Pierce first rose to fame in 2010 as Shangela on the second season of RuPaul's Drag Race, quickly becoming an iconic figure on the reality competition show. In the years since, Shangela has appeared on Dancing With the Stars, A Star Is Born, Hurricane Bianca, We're Here, and many more television shows.
Poff's lawyer, James A. Vagnini, says it's time for Pierce to take accountability.
"I think it's very telling that [Pierce's] response has been to go on attack. It's very rare that I've had a case where it's just been one survivor that's come forward and nobody else has ever said, 'Me too.' [That is] the whole basis of the Me Too movement. It's just a way to shield and put more fear into people into not coming forward and in this situation."
Vagnini also claims that "DJ and his legal team are using politics and the community as a weapon back. 'This is damaging to the community...' Well, what's damaging to the community is the fact that there's a predator running around drugging people. There's a pattern of it that now dates back to 2014 from the people we've spoken to."
This is why, he says, big defense lawyers are brought in — "because they've got to limit the amount of exposure that their client has and keep as many people from coming forward. Taking accountability, which is the right thing to do, is really never an option, no matter the amount of evidence I've got, no matter going all the way in a legal claim. It is the fear of the floodgates opening that forces them into this position because otherwise there could be a conversation out here. There could have been a conversation had in L.A. when Eric ran into him and opened the door."
At the end of the day, Pierce is "the only one who knows what he's done already," says Vagnini. "But there's a lot of other people out there, and there will be more to come, as you see in the next steps."
Vagnini claims that he's made contact with other survivors in other cities who have shared similar stories, "including a John Doe being in the room when they wake up. I just really want to address that, as a member of the community, they're doing a bigger disservice to the community by not taking some level of accountability and ownership in this. This isn't a drag issue. This is a human issue. Men, women every day go through experiences like this, unfortunately. To mask it in sort of what we're doing to the community and drag in particular is really, really offensive."
Pierce and his lawyer have not responded to Out's request for comment.
Meanwhile, Poff remains steadfast. "I understand how it upsets people. And trust me, I did not want to do this. As someone who also does drag, as someone who has performed in adult entertainment, I don't want to have to be this person to call him out, but it seems like I'm the only one that can."
"We have to hold our own accountable," Poff says.
Minutes before this Out interview with Eric Poff was published, Shangela shared a new statement on Instagram claiming to be "falsely accused in the most heinous ways." The drag star added:
"I'm advised to stay silent, and I'm doing my best to continue on without engaging in a back and forth with dishonest people seeking money or a moment."
*****
When I came across this article via Out's Facebook page, I was outraged reading the comments from a bunch of sissy's who were willing to victim blame instead of believing that men can be sexually assaulted.
So here's what I wrote in the comments: The fact that we have a bunch of ponks in here using the same tactic of victim blaming, which is the same comments they make whenever a woman accuses their male faves of assault is absolutely disgusting.
Yall think you know these people because you were hallelooing right along with them on a reality TV show? Sexual assault goes underreported in this country all the time, especially when it’s a same sex assault. Some of yall victim blaming in the comments when you weren’t even there need to go touch grass, because if you were a victim of assault, trust and believe you’d be singing a different tune.
Weren’t Diddy and Cosby accused of drugging their victims as well before they took advantage of them sexually? I’m sure a lot of y’all believed they were guilty out the gate because they fit the profile. Shangela couldn’t possibly be capable of such things because she’s effeminate and petite. What a crock of 💩.
And any future rebuttal on what I have to say on this matter, go argue with your mammy because IDGAF.