Oscar winner Timothy Hutton, currently the star of the freshman Fox drama “Almost Family,” has been accused of raping a 14-year-old girl in 1983. According to a report published online by BuzzFeed News, Sera Johnston, who last year filed a criminal complaint against Hutton with the Vancouver Police Department, said she was assaulted by the actor while he was in town to shoot the film “Iceman.”
Johnston told the site that she was just 14 when she and two friends were invited to Hutton’s hotel room, where she said she was raped and assaulted by both Hutton (who was then in his 20s) and one of his friends. Johnston, now 50, said she didn’t come forward until after the #MeToo movement gained strength because she didn’t think anyone would believe her.
Hutton denied the allegations to BuzzFeed, and in a statement to the site contended he never met Johnson, and called her story “fabricated,” with “patently false, scurrilous, and defamatory statements.” A representative for Hutton did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment. (The writers of the BuzzFeed article, Kate Aurthur and Adam B. Vary, currently work for Variety.)
BuzzFeed tracked down one of the two friends who were with Johnston that night; the woman, who hadn’t been in touch with Johnston for decades, corroborated her account of them visiting Hutton’s hotel room. That friend, only identified by her initials, C.B., signed an affidavit, under penalty of perjury, backing up her recollections.
BuzzFeed talked to five other people who confirmed that Johnston had told them about the Hutton incident over the years.
Johnston’s mother, who worked as a set decorator, told BuzzFeed that at the time they considered going to the police, but feared she might be blacklisted from the film industry. She said she regrets the decision now.
After acquiring a lawyer, Johnston entered arbitration with Hutton’s legal team; she initially agreed to a $135,000 settlement, but later changed her mind when she realized Hutton would be able to completely deny any wrongdoing. Complicating matters, an ex-boyfriend of Johnston’s reached out to Hutton’s friend (the other man whom she said assaulted her that night), offering to broker a settlement. That gave Hutton’s team an opening to question Johnston’s credibility.
In the years since that night, Johnston told BuzzFeed, that what happened “has colored every area of my life.”