Another former student at Children's Theatre Company has sued the theater and Twin Cities restaurateur Jason McLean, alleging sexual abuse and institutional negligence.
Filed Wednesday in Hennepin County District Court by an unidentified "Jane Doe," the suit alleges that McLean, who was an actor and teacher at CTC in the 1980s, sexually abused the girl for four years beginning in 1981, when she was a ninth-grader and he was twice her age.
The plaintiff subsequently issued a statement identifying herself: Melissa Beneke, who served as McLean's dresser during productions.
"I have been silent about the truth, as painful as it is, for too long," said Beneke, 48, who is a yoga instructor in Anchorage, Alaska.
The suit alleges that McLean "coerced" her to deny the abuse to a grand jury convened to investigate the company in 1984. "When he was at risk of being exposed and criminally prosecuted for his abuse of me, in order to protect himself, he coerced and manipulated me to lie," Beneke said in her statement.
Neither McLean, 61, owner of the Loring Pasta Bar and the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis, nor his attorney, Jon Hopeman, responded Wednesday to requests for comment. In a statement after the first suit was filed, Hopeman noted that state investigators pursued allegations against McLean in 1984 but brought no charges.
The suit is the fourth filed against CTC — and the third to name McLean as a defendant — since Dec. 1, when former students decided to revisit a sex-abuse scandal that engulfed the theater three decades ago.
Children's Theatre had no response to the latest suit, but previously expressed empathy for victims of sexual abuse, saying, "we welcome any information that may come forward as a result of this process."
