'Growing up on the show I received regular verbal attacks, mental abuse and I also suffered a physical assault at the hands of Scott Baio,' the Adam Powell depicter says in a statement.
- Feb 8, 2018
AceShowbiz - A new allegation against Scott Baio surfaced on Wednesday, February 7. Alexander Polinsky, who starred on "Charles in Charge" alongside Scott, opened up about both physical and mental abuse he got from Scott through a statement which was read out by co-star and fellow Scott accuser Nicole Eggert on "The Talk".
43-year-old Alexander said in the statement, "Working on the set of 'Charles in Charge' from age 11 to 15 was no picnic, it was a toxic environment." He went on revealing that he "witnessed Scott Baio acting inappropriately towards Nicole Eggert during my first year of working on the show."
"I walked in on them together behind the set. Nicole was on Scott's lap and he did not appreciate my intrusion," Alexander continued. "He yelled at me and called me various homophobic slurs."
"Growing up on the show I received regular verbal attacks, mental abuse and I also suffered a physical assault at the hands of Scott Baio. There is no excuse for his behavior. It is abhorrent," he added.
"Both Nicole and I were minors. We deserved safe passage to do our jobs and also be kids," he shared. "If we want to change the culture, we have to bring out the truth, take back control from the abusers and make them listen to the pain of their victims."
He concluded his statement, "For the sake of the next generation of young artists we must empower parents and social workers to heed the signals, ask the proper questions and protect children from monsters in the workplace. The cycle of abuse must stop. Even 30 years after the acts, they still matter."
Nicole, who was on the show to discuss her sexual abuse allegations against Scott, also detailed the alleged sexual assault from Scott. "[It was when I was] 14-years-old, 1986… and before I was 15-years-old, he had me at his home, in his car, in his garage and he penetrated my vagina with his finger. This is where it began and this continued almost on a weekly basis for years. Of course, the abuse progressed from there quite a bit although I remained a virgin until I was 17," she explained.
Nicole's attorney Lisa Bloom said in a statement on Wednesday, "Yesterday Nicole Eggert and I met with two police detectives from the sexual assault unit at my law firm. Nicole answered all of their questions for over an hour and told her story of sexual abuse by Scott Baio when she was a minor." Alexander also went with them, alleging that he witnessed some of the alleged sexual assaults.
Nicole said in a recent interview that the abuse took a major toll on her that she allegedly contemplated suicide when she was only 15. "I was 15 years old standing on the bridge over the L.A. River at Ventura and Vineland in Studio City, and I looked down at that dry river bed and I'm sobbing, I'm sobbing. I'm sobbing and I looked at it, and I said to myself, 'It's not a legit bridge, you're not going to die, you're going to break a lot of bones and you're not even going to kill yourself. Get home,' " she shared.
