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Elton John sued for sexual harassment by a former security guard

Elton John performed March 2 at a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton.

Elton John performed March 2 at a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton.

(Julie Jacobson / Associated Press)
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Elton John is being sued for sexual battery and harrassment by a Los Angeles Police Department Medal of Valor recipient who worked for several years as an off-duty security guard for the singer.

The lawsuit, filed Monday, alleges that from 2002 to September 2014, John innapropriately touched Jeffrey Wenninger on multiple occasions and made sexually suggestive comments, with the incidents “escalating in frequency and intensity after 2010.”

Orin Snyder, an attorney for John’s Rocket Entertainment Group, called the lawsuit “baseless” and Wenninger “disgruntled” in a statement issued Tuesday.

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“This baseless lawsuit is brought by a disgruntled former security officer seeking to extract an undeserved payment. These claims are patently untrue and contradicted by numerous previous statements made by this plaintiff. We will not give into his latest abuse of the legal system,” the attorney stated.

The lawsuit details three 2014 incidents alleged to have taken place in John’s vehicle as the singer was shuttled to and from his L.A. home that March and April. While sitting near Wenninger, the entertainer on two occasions tried to put his hand in the officer’s pants and touch his buttocks and genitalia, the suit alleges. On the third occasion, according to the document, John put his hands in the man’s shirt and twisted his nipples.

John is accused to saying things such as “Get your todger out,” “Say hello to Uncle Elton,” “You gorgeous thing you” and “You have so many gay genes in your, they just haven’t met up yet.” (“Todger” is British slang for “penis.”)

Wenninger tried to resist physically and verbally, the suit says, but it didn’t help. He’s seeking unspecified monetary damages for his pain and suffering, medical bills and lost income.

Wenninger was given the LAPD Medal of Valor in 2007 — he was a sergeant at the time — in recognition of the effort he and several other officers made in 1996 to rescue dozens of elderly residents from a burning building. He and his partner were the first two police on the scene and entered the burning building more than once.

While numerous outlets referred to Wenninger as a current captain in the LAPD, the department did not immediately respond to a Los Angeles Times request to verify Wenninger’s rank and his continued employment.

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Follow Christie D’Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ. Follow the Ministry of Gossip @LATcelebs.

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