TV executive Garth Ancier countersues sex abuse accuser

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hollywood television executive Garth Ancier filed a malicious-prosecution lawsuit on Friday against a former teenage actor who just two days earlier had dropped a lawsuit accusing him of sexual abuse in the late 1990s. Ancier, who has worked for Fox and NBC, sued Michael Egan and his attorneys Jeff Herman and Michael Gallagher, alleging abuse of process, documents filed in a Hawaii court show. Egan, 31, in April sued Ancier and three other Hollywood executives - "X-Men" director Bryan Singer, TV executive David Neuman and entertainment firm executive Gary Goddard - accusing them of sexually abusing him in Hawaii when he was an aspiring teenage actor. All four denied the claims and filed motions to dismiss. Egan filed voluntary dismissals of his lawsuits against Neuman and Ancier this month, but Singer and Goddard's cases are still pending. Ancier's lawsuit requests a jury trial to determine the charges and damages caused to his reputation and business from Egan's claims. It asserts that neither he nor Egan was in Hawaii at the time of the alleged abuses. In a statement on Friday, Herman said "Mike Egan maintains that he was sexually abused by Garth Ancier," but did not say why his client had dropped the suit against Ancier. He added that Egan had been examined by a psychologist and passed a polygraph test supporting his allegations. "This is nothing more than an attempt to silence victims. I will not be bullied and I will continue to fight for victims of sexual abuse even when it happens in Hollywood," said Herman, who hosted highly publicized news conferences in Los Angeles after filing the initial lawsuits in April. (Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Richard Chang and Mohammad Zargham)