Comedian Beth Stelling's Alleged Rapist Denies Everything

By Mae Rice in News on Jan 4, 2016 6:05PM

Comedian Beth Stelling, who got her start in Chicago, accused an ex-boyfriend of rape and violent abuse that left her covered in bruises in several social media posts last week. She didn’t name him, but he’s since been identified as Cale Hartmann.

Hartmann made a recent, public post about the accusations on his Facebook page.

“I was incredibly hurt to see my ex-girlfriend had made public accusations across all of her social media platforms that tell a story so far beyond the truth,” Hartmann’s post says. “The severity of her accusations are false and extremely harmful. I'm not sure she realizes the irreparable harm of her actions.”

Hartmann added:

Everyone condemning me on social media must have some evidence beyond her word - they must know me in a way that I don't know myself - they must know her personally and be 100% certain to "out" my name despite a single word from me. They have no such proof, no such certainty, no such reason for using my name. My career and life do not deserve to be taken away without some basic level of due process just because of an allegation on the Internet. She is being praised and lauded to no end while people take joy in destroying me as the new villain of the week. How would that make you feel?

Stelling’s initial Instagram post received a flood of support; Hartmann’s post, on the other hand, brought in less than 40 likes and a slew of critical comment.

One representative comment read: “Maybe you should have thought about your ‘career’ before you started abusing other human beings.”

[H/T Jezebel]