The moral fabric of our great nation began to unravel earlier this week when Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash was publicly accused of having a sexual relationship with an underaged boy, resulting in Clash taking a leave of absence from Sesame Street. Shocked and disoriented fans who grew up watching the show got a bit of a reprieve on Wednesday when the accuser, now 24 and at the time still unidentified, recanted his accusations, admitting that he and Clash had relations after he had become an adult. Clash issued his own statement confirming the relationship and that it had occurred after the accuser had turned 18.
So who is the “Tickle Me Hell No!” accuser? The Smoking Gun identified him on Wednesday as struggling 24-year-old model/actor Sheldon Stephens (seen in the modeling photos above) from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. According to his resume, Stephens spent some time interning at Blowback Productions in New York City, where Sesame Street is filmed, between 2007 and 2009. (Kevin Clash lives on Manhattan’s West Side.) A friend of Stephens tells The Smoking Gun that he “attracts these high-powered men,” but he was a “God-fearing guy” and “not just a pretty boy.”
One of the high-powered men Stephens apparently attracted was music manager Darian Pollard, who fired Stephens from an intern position in 2009 and then accused him of a knifepoint robbery in which Stephens took a $250,000 “white gold necklace with diamonds” and a “white gold ring with diamond baguets.”
Sheldon Stephens was arrested in September, 2009 as he stepped off a flight from Los Angeles at the Harrisburg airport. Officers did not find a knife in Stephens’ possession, but he “was wearing the necklace and also the ring” according to the report. “He made no attempt to hide either article,” the investigator added. Sheldon Stephens’ mug shot photos from the 2009 arrest can be seen above and below – click to enlarge.
The charges filed in Pennsylvania against Stephens were dropped two weeks later, and though a Beverly Hills Police Department detective told Pennsylvania investigators that he “would be filing charges in Beverly Hills for theft and other charges,” there is no evidence they ever were.
From The Smoking Gun:
In brief phone interviews, Pollard described himself as a “very wealthy” man who has been held up “like five times.” He claimed not to recall being robbed at knifepoint by Stephens or calling Beverly Hills cops. A friend of Stephens’s dismissed the Beverly Hills incident as a simple “misunderstanding,” likening it to a “domestic dispute.”
Sheldon Stephens, who also goes by the name Sheldon Xzavier, has apparently founded a management company called X Management and describes himself this way on the site:
Sheldon Xzavier: Formally educated at Harrisburg University of Science and technology majoring in Management. Sheldon has traveled the U.S as a High Profile Model, Hollywood stylist, Public Relation rep, and an Intern for multiple entertainment and production Agencies. Setting up shop in Los Angeles, Manhattan, Miami, Las Vegas and Central Pennsylvania establishing X management has been his Primary goal all while spearheading Local Celebrities to National Stars.
Something he will probably be adding to his resume soon? Target of defamation lawsuit.
