Andy Signore Addresses Sexual Assault Allegations
[UPDATED for clarity and typo corrections]
After two years of silence following his dismissal from Defy Media, Andy Signore is addressing the sexual assault allegations that surfaced in the early days of the #MeToo movement.
April O’Donnell, better known as April Dawn on Twitter, accused Signore of sexually harassing and assaulting her on multiple occasions, taking to social media and rallying a lot of support. Other women come forth and gave stories of interactions they had with Signore, painting a picture of a person with unseemly patterns of behavior.
Multiple women gave their accounts of the interactions they had with Signore, most of which they described as flirtatious and sexual in manner; however, none of these women claimed to be harassed, but simply annoyed by these text messages.
Signore publicly denied these claims on Twitter and apologized for any actions that may have caused his fans to feel uncomfortable. At that time Signore was unable to comment on any of the specifics of the case.
Signore settled his case of defamation against Defy Media on July 24th. No details of the settlement have been released as of yet, but Signore took to the web to state his case.
On July 22, 2019 Signore spoke about the accusations after consulting with his lawyers. In a YouTube video, he states that all the accusations were false, and that Dawn had fabricated the whole situation. Signore admits that the two had an extramarital affair that lasted two months and provided text messages to prove that to be the case.
Signore also produced text messages that seemingly show that there was no sexual assault and all of their meet-ups were consensual.
Following the claims made by Signore, Dawn posted a response on Twitter. In the response she said that she knew what was happening and that she stands by her statements and that what she did was right.
Signore states that although his actions were not acceptable for moral reasons, he did not commit any crime. In the video Signore conveys his anger at social media justice and believes he was not given fair treatment by the media.
On July 26th Signore released another video stating that no major media outlet would cover his story and that he felt as though he were not being given a voice by mainstream media outlets. He has since also announced plans to use this experience as part of a new creative project called Hugging the Cactus, named after Robert Downey, Jr.’s turn of phrase when describing the help he got from mentor Mel Gibson. The project, as he describes it, is designed to give a voice to those who have been falsely accused and tell their stories in a short documentary series.
UPDATE: Signore tells us that he will do his best to research and properly vet the cases that they cover in the series.
“Those two years of mine, while the world continued to label me a monster… I was left alone with my mistakes, my shame, my grief, and my anger. I was forced to look at parts of myself that I did not like. By hugging my own cactus for as long as I had to do, I saw reasons to be a better man. No matter the gravity of our mistakes, sometimes falling down can unleash honest self-reflection that can make us better people.”
