October 26, 2014
Purple Sex Toy-Wielding Clowns Attack Family; They Sue
Winnie McCroy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Talk about Halloween hijinks gone awry!
An Illinois woman and her teenage daughter filed a lawsuit on October 21, after they said two men dressed as clowns accosted them with purple dildos and vibrators as they were trying to buy tickets to a local haunted house.
The Smoking Gun reports 38-year-old Regina Janito and her daughter were headed into the Massacre Haunted House in Montgomery, Ill., about 45 miles from Chicago, on October 11 when 23-year-old Robert Keller and another man attacked them.
Both men were "dressed in clown costumes" and Keller was "holding a vibrating, purple sex toy." The other man was reportedly holding a teddy bear with a vibrator attached to the stuffed animals "groin area."
As the two women walked toward the ticket window at about 7:45 p.m. that evening, the two men surrounded the teen and Keller "began to violently poke the minor in various parts of her body, including her buttocks." Meanwhile, the other clown "inserted the Teddy Bear Vibrator into his own mouth and began simulating oral sex."
"Do you want some more?" and "You know you like it in the butt!" were the phrases Janito said they yelled at her daughter. When she tried to intervene, she said Keller waved the purple vibrator in his face "in a threatening manner."
Janito and her daughter returned to their car and left the area. They called the police who arrested Keller for battery and disorderly conduct. He posed for the mug shot in a white T-shirt with bloody handprints -- his costume from the haunted house.
Janito's Oct. 21 lawsuit names Keller, the haunted house, and the second clown, known as 'John Doe,' with sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress. The haunted house was charged with negligence for allowing "Keller and John Doe to attack Janito and the minor with sex toys."
The lawsuit seeks more than $50,000 in damages for each of the six counts.
Winnie McCroy is the Women on the EDGE Editor, HIV/Health Editor, and Assistant Entertainment Editor for EDGE Media Network, handling all women's news, HIV health stories and theater reviews throughout the U.S. She has contributed to other publications, including The Village Voice, Gay City News, Chelsea Now and The Advocate, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.