Shawne Merriman Sexual Assault Claims: Multiple Allegations Ex-NFL Star Roofies and Rapes Women
Shawne Merriman is claimed to be a man who roofies, rapes and sexually assaults women—according to numerous allegations that have
Maxine Page
Shawne Merriman is claimed to be a man who roofies, rapes and sexually assaults women—according to numerous allegations that have been made against the ex-NFL star, by multiple people.
As CelebMagazine previously reported, accusations first came to light after the parents of Kim Fattorini filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Merriman, and other parties—including Monica Maas and Elias Wehbe—claiming the former athlete drugged their daughter with the notorious roofie drug GHB, prior to her dying.
You can read the full, horrendous story here.
Since CelebMagazine founder Nik Richie first posted about the lawsuit on Instagram, we have been inundated with messages from women, and men, leveling accusations against Merriman—ranging from him [allegedly] drugging them (and others) with GHB, to him [allegedly] committing sexual assault and / or rape.
The Shawne Merriman accusations
The accusations are spread over a period of years, showing a [alleged] well formed pattern of behavior, and amongst the allegations are even claims from multiple people that Merriman is [allegedly] “notorious for drugging and raping women”.
In addition, there are numerous accusations that Shawne Merriman is [allegedly] well known for using GHB himself.
It’s also been claimed there are women who [allegedly] “have woken up to find Merriman on top of them after they had passed out and did not know what was going on”.
Merriman’s #TimesUp moment
CelebMagazine has also received allegations against Hollywood club promoter Elias Wehbe, but we’ll cover those in a future post.
(Don’t worry Eli, you’ll get your #MeToo moment too!)
For now, we are going to focus solely on the multiple accusations that have been made against Shawne Merriman.
The sexual assault WhatsApp group
On May 15, 2020, following Richie’s Instagram post about the Fattorinis’ lawsuit against Merriman, there was a WhatsApp group formed. The group comprises of “up to 50 different women” who all came together to support each other and share stories about their experiences of sexual harassment, sexual assault and being drugged or roofied against their will (or without their knowledge/consent) in California.
Several of those women allege it was Shawne Merriman who drugged and / or [allegedly] sexually assaulted them.
The WhatsApp group was started by Celeste Durve and Kelsi Kitchener from Viper by KCH, which is a hospitality and brand ambassador agency that’s hired by nightclubs and events to manage anything related to guest experience—usually invite and VIP list facilitation and compilation, door management, event set-up and check-in process.
Celeste Durve agreed to go on the record to speak out, on behalf of the other young women in the WhatsApp group, because they’re too scared to speak on the record themselves, out of fear of reprisal or being “blacklisted” in Hollywood.
The roofie and sexual assault claims
“Girls are talking about [what’s happened to them and others], but they’re too scared to speak up because they don’t want to lose their jobs” Durve told CelebMagazine.
“And a lot of girls won’t speak up anyways, which then brings us back to the nightlife culture, which is where Kelsi and I come in. They’re not speaking up because these promoters are the people who are facilitating this weird culture.
“There’s a lot of pressure on the girls to stop them speaking out, you know, to not say anything, because they don’t want to be blacklisted from these clubs, or have their nightlife or their networking scene taken away from them.”
CelebMagazine interviewed Durve at length, on two separate occasions. She told us that after learning of the wrongful death lawsuit, “none of [the women in the WhatsApp group] were surprised by the allegations made against Shawne Merriman” and she talked about various incidents where Merriman was believed to have [allegedly] drugged and / or sexually assaulted women.
“The next day we had like 50 girls, I want to say, in this space on WhatsApp, everyone is equally outraged by this, but unfortunately, no-one was particularly surprised. There were a lot of people who said that they’ve known, they’ve heard stories about Shawne Merriman,” Durve claimed.
“The Shawne Merriman thing was weird to me because I didn’t know who he was before this, but when this all came out, I got at least I would say….. I mean, I couldn’t even tell you how many, maybe eight people, were like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ve heard of…. I’ve heard of him [allegedly] being notorious for drugging and raping women’”.
“There are girls who have [allegedly] woken up to him on top of them,” Durve continued. “And that’s, it’s just crazy.
“I personally don’t know too much of what goes on at these after party segments, many of them—but the stories I’m hearing, you know, I had other girls reaching out to me and saying, ‘Oh, I had X Y & Z like, kind of trying to push me on to this other man, and I didn’t want to do it’.”
“You know, we’ve just heard about how charming and charismatic [Merriman] can be,” Durve said. “Like coming across as being great, and it’s like a sick kind of thing, where the girls end-up passed out and not knowing what’s going on.”
Durve also claims that outside of the WhatsApp group she was approached by several men with their own observations and [alleged] stories involving Merriman.
Men know too
“There were several guys who knew about Merriman and the alleged [GHB / sexual assault] thing,” Durve told CelebMagazine. “They would tell me, ‘I’ve heard about this’, or like, you know, ‘I’ve seen him out at clubs and he gets really, really wasted and he’s not been able to even, you know, function’ and things like that.
“Or they had heard stories of women that [Shawne Merriman] had [allegedly] abused, like, beat up, in addition to [allegedly] raping ” Durve continued.
“I don’t think it’s particularly difficult for him in LA to find somebody who’s interested in dating somebody famous. But for some reason, it was like [allegedly] a thing with him. That’s what I have heard from multiple people like, oh, he has [allegedly] drugged and raped multiple people.”
“And then there are stories from girls themselves,” Durve told CelebMagazine. “And you know, those are their stories. I’m not really at liberty to tell them but they’re like, ‘I would wake-up to him on top of me. And I don’t know how that happened.’
“And that’s extremely scary. So it seems like it’s this after party thing. Where [Merriman] is and being, you know, he’s [allegedly] flipping GHB is what I’ve been told. And he, he [allegedly] provides the GHB from the stories that I’m hearing from these women.”
“I’ve heard from [multiple people] like oh, you know, ‘Shawne [allegedly] notoriously uses G and I have heard from a couple of the servers at clubs that GHB is like a very popular drug actually,” Durve claimed. “It’s like some people, some athletes, use it to get drunk, apparently.
“Some athletes use it because if they get tested, it disappears from your system so quickly. That’s why Kim’s death was particularly scary because GHB is notorious for disappearing within 24 hours. But two days later, Kim’s autopsy revealed that she still had a ton of it in her system.
“Kim was tiny. So it’s just like, you overdo it and you kill somebody. And yeah, apparently [using GHB] can be common with some athletes just because it doesn’t show up in a urine test.”
Shawne Merriman allegations ‘no surprise’
“I think after Kim initially had died, people had said, I found this out once all of this came out, there were all these terrible rumors like, ‘Oh, she was a party girl, she overdosed or whatever’,” Durve told CelebMagazine. “But, I mean, the level [of GHB still found in Kim’s system] was insane. And also, just the reason I think, too, that this story went viral as it did so quickly in the Hollywood community, is because nobody was surprised about who was involved in it.”
“Especially with Shawne,” Durve continued. “Because every single person was like, ‘Oh, I had heard he had been doing that’. This spread like wildfire because inside the nightlife community, everyone was like, ‘yep, no surprise’.”
However, allegations haven’t just come from Celeste Durve and members of the WhatsApp group though.
CelebMagazine has interviewed four other women, who all made varying but similar allegations against Merriman. All of the women asked to remain anonymous, for personal reasons.
NOTE TO MERRIMAN’S ATTORNEYS, and any other doubters out there: My 19-years of experience from working in media as a reporter, journalist and editor (which never resulted in one single legal threat or lawsuit) tells me they are being truthful in their accounts.
Also, at some point, when you are hearing accusations from multiple people, involving a similar M.O., leveled against the same one person, it’s no longer a case of “he said, she said”…. It becomes a case of, “MULTIPLE SHES said, he said”. You can read about CelebMagazine’s interactions with Merriman’s legal representatives at the end of the post.
But first, here’s what CelebMagazine was told by the other [alleged] victims of Merriman’s—who, at the time of posting, we will refer to as Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2, Jane Doe 3 & Jane Doe 4, for their safety, and in respect of their wish to remain anonymous, for now.
Jane Doe 1’s roofie accusation
“I used to party in Hollywood back in 2011. One day I was out at a club with a group of friends and when I went to the bar, Shawne Merriman was standing there. While I was waiting to get served, I saw Shawne Merriman ask a girl if he could buy her a drink. She agreed, but after the drink arrived she saw him pour liquid into it, from a glass vial he was holding.
“When he handed the drink to her she said ‘What the fuck? I just saw you try to put something in my drink!’ He of course tried to deny it, but from that point on me and my friends became very scared of the nightlife in Hollywood.
“The next day I told promoters that I was friends with what had happened and they said ‘Oh yeah Shawne is known for drugging women.’ We all stopped partying after we realized how sick it was. We were super naive at the time so it took awhile to realize how far reaching this ring of predators was.
“Thanks for shining a light on this. It’s astonishing that Shawne has been able to continue for almost a decade. I’m sure anyone who had this man at their club knew of his practices.
“I would like to remain completely anonymous as I’m scared what could happen to me if this came out in my name.”
Jane Doe 2’s roofie allegation
“I was actually close to Shawne Merriman for a fairly long time, over six months in total.
“The first time I met Shawne I thought I saw him pour something in my drink, but I initially thought I must have been mistaken, even though the drink tasted a bit weird. But then I became incredibly dizzy after a while, and I later passed out… for hours.
“When I woke up the next day, I asked Shawne what he had put in my drink, and why it had tasted so salty. He told me that he’d put G in it, and that it was supposed to be his drink, but he accidentally gave it to me. Which I now realize was a lie.
“It took me months to finally realize what kind of a person Shawne Merriman actually is, but he showed me over time.
“Looking back I’m disgusted at myself for hanging out with such a person, and in hindsight I feel that I’m lucky I even survived the first day I met him. The allegations are true. He drugs girls, and I know, because he drugged me.”
Jane Doe 3’s near-escape and nasty angry texts
“I met Shawne Merriman in San Diego in the club scene, specifically I first met him at Bar West, way back when Bar West was popular. He was close friends with [REDACTED] and his clique were all very well known Chaldeans.
“I was invited to Shawne’s table, and that’s when I was introduced to him. The night progressed and he exchanged numbers with me. I left there early and headed downtown to another club.
“Shawne had been serving me drinks that night, I honestly believe he was trying to get me wasted but since I left early it backfired. As I was out in downtown Shawne kept texting and trying to meet up with me, but I just kept dodging him. Days passed and Shawne continued flirting with me, I thought he was sweet at first but was I wrong.
“The weekend came, and I was out in downtown again, and I ran into Shawne. I got invited to the table he was at and I went to say hello. He served me drinks the whole night again but I ended-up leaving early again to go to another club as I loved to hop around.
“The night was over and the clubs were closing but Shawne texted me asking me what my plans were. I proceeded to tell him that I was calling it a night because I was drunk. Shawne told me that he would send a driver and he asked me to give him my location. I refused to go anywhere though, because I felt like I’d been slipped something, I didn’t even know where I was at. But I was with a close girlfriend of mine and she was taking care of me thankfully.
“Shawne noticed I was being stand-offish and he said ‘fine let me at least send you a car to get you home’ and I accepted. I got into the Uber that he sent but I noticed it was going in the opposite direction to where I lived. So I asked the driver where we were going, and he told me that we were going to Shawne’s house in Poway. I said ‘no, no, no, can you turn around and take me to my home?’
“I then texted Shawne and told him that I wasn’t going to his home, I never agreed to that. He replied back and claimed that he wanted to take care of me. I told him that I was fine, that I was with my friend and that she was taking care of me.
“I then heard the driver talking to Shawne. He had told the driver to go to his house, but I told the driver no again. Shawne then texted me aggressively, telling me that if I didn’t go to his house then I was going to regret it, and that he would ruin my reputation in downtown with the people we had in common, and that he would get me kicked out of any club if I ever showed my face.
“Shawne turned into this crazy man just because I declined to go to his home. I received nasty mean text messages from him all night up until the next day. He didn’t know this but I had never given him my real number, I gave him a number from a texting app called Text Free. I’ve been trying to log in to it to get the messages because they were crazy, but they aren’t there anymore, because none of the texts were stored.
“I blocked Shawne on all social media and on the texting app after the situation. I was honestly scared to run into him at the clubs after that, so every time I saw him I would just leave to avoid him. I told the story to the Chaldeans we met through, and well, they told me they didn’t know why Shawne was like that, but that I wasn’t the first woman to complain about him.
“Thankfully I was not alone that night and I didn’t go over to Shawne’s home while stupid drunk and out of it. Looking back, I think he had drugged me that night, since I can’t remember much of what happened and I later blacked out.
“It’s just scary to think that he’s [allegedly] done this to many other people and actually been sexual with them. I really hope other women come forward, especially if he has done worse to them.”
Jane Doe 4’s roofie allegations
“I initially contacted you guys after I read the Kim Fattorini post you wrote, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I cannot believe this!’ Because I read the whole thing, and I had witnessed it happen so many times.
“I used to be friends with some people in the group that Merriman hung around with and he always had one of those little “5-hour ENERGY” bottles with him, and was always pouring what was inside it into girls’ drinks. I saw it happen so many times, [Merriman] drugging girls. And, it happened to me once too.
“So, one night we were all out drinking and partying at a club, and we ended-up going to an after party. At the party Shawne Merriman handed me a capsule of something—like a pill shaped capsule that had liquid in it—I took it, knowing It was definitely a drug, but not knowing what kind of drug it was or how it would affect me.
“I admit, it was a stupid decision, to just take a drug [Merriman] gave me, but we were out partying and I’d known the group for a while so I guess it didn’t occur to me that it would be some kind of roofie drug.
“Literally from a short time after swallowing the capsule, I do not remember anything. I don’t remember a single thing that happened, right up until the next day, when I just remember waking up in bed, naked, next to [Merriman’s friend], in his house. I woke up and I was laid out and I looked over at him and I’m like ‘what the….?’
“In retrospect, I believe Shawne filled the capsule with some of the liquid from inside the ‘5-hour ENERGY’ bottle that he always had with him. And I’m, like, coming to find out that’s the popular way people are carrying GHB, inside those bottles.
“I’m definitely not proud of the fact I took the capsule from Shawne and swallowed it without thinking. I had no clue it was a roofie drug though, I really didn’t, but I’m still not proud of that. I was going through a tough time in my life and I was going out drinking and partying too much. It’s kind of like I was trying to drown my feelings.
“I had been drinking tequila and we were all partying that night, but I would never have willingly taken GHB or whatever kind of roofie drug it was, especially as I’d seen him pouring liquid into other girls’ drinks in the past, but I guess it hadn’t occurred to me that it was a roofie drug he had been pouring in, I guess I thought it was just the 5-hour ENERGY drink.
“As soon as I woke up that day I just immediately got out of the house—the guy was still sleeping, so I just fled. I never confronted either Shawne or his friend, I was too scared to say anything. I kept my distance from both of them from then on though.
“To this day, I still don’t know what happened after I blacked out, like if there was a sexual assault that occurred. I had been unconscious, so, I mean, there wouldn’t be any signs anyway probably, like bruises or anything… because I had been unconscious. But I remember, like, checking myself.
“Some time after that happened I was out at a club and I saw [Merriman] at a table and stuff, and he went to high-five me, and all I could think was ‘I feel so disgusted by you’.
“[Merriman] was completely wasted, he was drinking a lot of shots, I knew he liked to take GHB, and he was drunk and probably on coke too, or whatever. [Merriman] was dancing and going super crazy and then he even started wrestling with somebody, he was acting really bizarrely. And then, suddenly, he, like, started violently throwing-up everywhere. That’s how wasted he was.
“And everyone was trying to get to him, but the people with him were obviously trying to cover it up, and they wouldn’t let anyone go near where [Merriman] was, to see him, you know to take pictures of him, or whatever. Then, [Merriman] was rushed out of the club by some of the people with him, who helped carry him outside, because he couldn’t walk by himself.
“After that incident I saw him again, at a party this time, and I saw him pouring liquid into a girl’s drink when she wasn’t looking, and I knew what he was doing at that point—well, I knew what had happened to me, so I thought I knew what was happening.
“I never said anything though, I was afraid of [Merriman] so I didn’t say anything, I was like, I feel like I was really scared. But, he’s been doing this for so long, because he’s been allowed to, because everyone has been scared of him and they’ve not spoken out. Also, he’s always, like, he’s always been around people that I feel, like, also encourage his behavior.
“I have nothing positive to say about Shawne Merriman, but as I’m older now, he just seems, kind of, he seems like a coward to me, and so insecure. Like every time I saw him it was like he felt he had to prove he was just, like, so much better than you, you know. But, it’s not OK. It’s not OK what he’s doing.
“That’s why I finally decided to tell my story to you guys. That way, hopefully it will help to bring justice and stop [Merriman] from hurting others.”
Enter the legals—vacays, racism and misogyny
Prior to posting, CelebMagazine contacted Shawne Merriman’s attorney for comment. I called Andrew D. Skale from the Mintz legal firm myself, and I spoke to him on the phone, to ask for his email address.
Skale asked me, “Why is your website so obsessed with my client?” I told him he would understand once I had sent my email. Skale replied, “Well, I’m going on vacation” and said he would get back to me “sometime next week”. I told him he had 24 hours to reply.
Because, unlike some people out there, I really like everybody to be fully aware of what’s going on at all times, here’s the email I sent to Andrew Skale, on Thursday July 9, 2020:
Dear Mr Skale,
I am writing to request comment on a story I am preparing to publish on CelebMagazine.com, involving your client Shawne Merriman.
The story includes the following:
- Shawne Merriman is notorious for drugging and raping women, and well known for using GHB himself
- There are multiple women who have woken up to find Merriman on top of them after they had passed out and did not know what was going on
- There is a WhatsApp group of “up to” 50 different women that came together to support each other and share stories about their experiences of sexual harassment, sexual assault and being drugged against their will (or without their knowledge/consent) in California. Several of those women allege Shawne Merriman was the person who drugged / sexually assaulted them.
- The WhatsApp group was started by Celeste Durve and Kelsi Kitchener from Viper. Celeste Durve has gone on the record to speak on behalf of the women, because they’re too scared to speak on the record themselves, out of fear of reprisal.
- Durve says that after learning of the wrongful death lawsuit filed by Kim Fattorini’s parents, “none of the [women in the WhatsApp group] were surprised by the allegations against Shawne Merriman” and she details various incidents where Merriman has drugged and or sexually assaulted women.
- In addition, I have interviewed a woman, who has no connection to the WhatsApp group, who claims she was “roofied” by Merriman, and that she regularly saw him roofie others by pouring GHB into their drinks from a “5 Hour Energy” bottle he carried with him
- I have also interviewed three other women who have all made varying but similar allegations against Merriman
If you would like to respond to any of the above points, please do so within 24-hours, or it’s #TimesUp!
I have CC’d our attorney, David, on the email.
Best wishes,
Maxine Page
However, Skale never replied to my email though—perhaps his fingers were covered in too much suntan lotion to be able to type during his vacay.
However, CelebMagazine did receive a response from a different attorney, Brett Greenfield—who works for a different firm, the 818 Law Group, which represents Merriman in the Kim Fattorini wrongful death case.
Sadly, Greenfield didn’t reply in writing, but he did speak with our legal counsel, and Greenfield claimed that CelebMagazine has a racist agenda against his client.
Greenfield claimed this “whole thing” is actually a Black Lives Matter “witch-hunt”, and that Merriman is ONLY being attacked because he is black. Oh, and Greenfield also claimed that Kim Fattorini was “a druggie and a whore”.
Yep, really. And, yeah, I can’t even….
I have personally been roofied and I have personally been sexually assaulted and raped (not by Shawne Merriman, but by other men), and at the time, for a variety of reasons, I didn’t report anything to the police, or talk publicly about what had happened.
An estimated 91.6 percent of rapes are believed to go unreported and even when they are, perpetrators of sexual violence are way less likely to go to prison than offenders of other crimes. There’s still stigma attached to sexual assault, and that goes a long way towards women not speaking out.
However, there’s immense power in speaking out, for yourself, and for others. I know, because I eventually did, several times in fact. And now I won’t shut up.
Publicly naming and shaming your attacker, or attackers, can help to protect other women and potential victims, but it’s also cathartic. It’s really, really cathartic. And it feels really, really empowering.
If you, or anybody you know, has similar accusations or has been subjected to any incidents involving Shawne Merriman, please reach out to me and let me know—because I’d love to speak with you. You can email me at [email protected]
Meanwhile, on a final note— to Mr. Brett Greenfield, how very fucking dare you. SHAME. ON. YOU.
UPDATE:
It turns out Mr Greenfield is apparently now feeling “disheartened” by our post, and claims his client, Shawne Merriman will “continue to be deeply affected” by Kim Fattorini’s “untimely death”. Which, yes, is really apparent if you take a glance as his Instagram feed.
For instance, following Greenfield’s claim that CelebMagazine has a racist agenda against Merriman, simply because he’s black (Oh Mr. Greenfield, you so do not know me) the former Linebacker posted this today:
Please DO show us your beauty and cool Merriman, we would absolutely LOVE to see! But, in the meantime, you can be certain that we WILL be watching you, as we watch every other [alleged] roofier and [alleged] rapist…no matter if they are black, white, brown or Asian.
Meanwhile, last night it appears Mr. Greenfield was feeling a little needy, because he had sent quite an eye-opening message directly to me—despite me asking him specifically to speak to CelebMagazine’s legal counsel—who he decided to drop from the email chain, and instead demand that I call him. (It’s 2020 Mr. Green field, wake-up, some of us believe in little things like respect and consent).
Following some glorious and highly enjoyable mansplaining about how I was the person who had written the post—so educational and enlightening dear sir—he demanded, “Call me. I’m waiting”.
Sadly, at that time I was fully engrossed in season 4 episode 13 of “Love Island: Australia” because I wasn’t expecting any correspondence from him—as throughout my career, at this stage it’s always been attorney to attorney and all that bad experimental jazz.
But, after the thrilling Married at First Sight: Australia cliffhanger ending—will Susan and Sean stay together?!!!!! I checked my emails, and by then, perhaps poor Mr. Greenfield had found somebody else to talk to in his hour of need, because he then sent a statement to me and our legal counsel instead. Here it is in all its glory, please enjoy (and remember to drink responsibly):
Since you are unwilling to speak with me directly and obtain a direct quote. Here’s my statement in writing.
“Ms. Frattorini’s death is untimely and unfortunate. Mr. Merriman has been and will continue to be deeply affected.
The hearsay statements and allegations contained within this article are untrue and disheartening. With respect to the wrongful death lawsuit, there is no evidence linking Mr. Merriman to the possession or use of GHB, cocaine, or alcohol, nor is there evidence of a sexual assault.
We look forward to the presentation of substantial evidence that will lead to the complete exoneration of Mr. Merriman during the course and scope of the wrongful death lawsuit.”
Indeed Mr. Greenfield, indeed, and my uncle is the unicorn king of North Korea.
BTW, it might be nice if you bothered to spell the name of the dead [alleged] victim of your oh so mournful client correctly. It’s Fattorini, not Frattorini…..
Like I said, it’s all about showing some respect dude. Double shame on you.