Ballerina Dusty Button accuser Sage Humphries posed in sexy ‘gun room’ photos

Embattled prima ballerina Dusty Button has come forward with more evidence that she says proves she did not groom and sexually abuse young protégés.

Once at the top of the dance world and a social media sensation, Button is now fighting to prove her innocence after seven women leveled detailed allegations in July 2021 of assault, sex trafficking and even child rape against her and her husband Mitchell Button, who was her manager.

The ballet word was shaken last August when Boston Magazine highlighted the allegations against Dusty and her husband. At the time her career with the Boston Ballet had made her one of the most recognizable dancers in the world.

The bombshell legal filing, obtained by DailyMail.com, depicts star-struck young performers seduced by promises of fame and career advancement only to find their lives and finances controlled by the ‘seasoned predators.’

Earlier this month Button broke her year-long silence to blast her accusers as fame-hungry liars – telling DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview: ‘I’ve done nothing wrong.’

And now the ‘terrifying’ gun room where the Buttons are accused of sexually abusing young dancers can be revealed for the first time – but the couple insist the weapons are harmless toys.

The dimly-lit den resembles a military grade armory stocked with pistols, assault rifles and grenades, just as several alleged victims have described in court filings.

However Dusty, 33, and Mitchell Button, 37, say they have receipts to demonstrate the ‘firearms’ were pellet-firing Airsoft replicas used as props for their social media shoots.

The Buttons have revealed multiple pictures of Sage Humphries – their most prominent accuser – posing inside the room and fooling around with some of the plastic guns prior to accusing them of abuse.

‘When they called it the gun room, that came out of nowhere because they weren’t real guns and we called it the prop room,’ Dusty told DailyMail.com.

‘You only have to look at these things to see they are plastic. She absolutely knew that. But they’ll use anything they can to paint this picture that we’re a violent, evil couple.’

Four accusers say they were molested by Mitchell between 2006 and 2010 when he was a dance instructor in Tampa, Florida and they attended his classes as girls.

They include Danielle Gutierrez, who alleges she once saw Mitchell threaten a man with an AK-47.

Humphries is one of three women who claim Dusty groomed them for emotional and sexual abuse while she was a celebrated principal ballerina at the Boston Ballet from 2014 to 2017.

She first took the Buttons to court in August 2017, stating in her filing for a protection order that the couple had ‘over fifty guns at home.’

The 24-year-old ballerina made a further reference to firearms in last summer’s civil action, describing a macabre sex assault in which she was ordered to wear a spandex suit that covered her entire body, including her mouth and eyes.

‘Dusty led Sage into a room of the Buttons’ apartment that had an arsenal of guns hanging on the wall. Sage told the Buttons she was scared,’ the complaint says.

‘They instructed her to lie down on a table, and they tied up her arms and legs so she was unable to move. The Buttons then sexually assaulted Sage.’

Jane Doe 100, an anonymous accuser, alleges an eerily similar assault at the hands of the Buttons after meeting them in 2014 when she was still a minor.

‘They led Jane Doe 100 into a room that had a mattress on the floor and an arsenal of guns hanging on the wall,’ the complaint states.

‘Dusty held up her phone in a manner that indicated to Jane Doe she was recording the rape. Jane Doe 100 believes Dusty took photos and/or videos of Taylor raping Jane Doe 100. Taylor is Mitchell Button’s middle name.

‘At one point, Dusty had a gun in her hand. Jane Doe 100 was terrified.’

The Buttons say both accusers seem to be describing the spare room inside their former apartment at the swank Ava Somerville building, just outside of Boston, which they rented from January 2015 to October 2017

To dispel the notion they owned real firearms, they supplied DailyMail.com with multiple photos of the supposed ‘gun room’ as well as receipts and close ups for some of the Airsoft weapons.

The Buttons say they bought them on Craigslist, eBay and other hobby websites to create a cool backdrop for a brand partnership with a knife manufacturer.

Dusty and Humphries then took turns posing for photos in the 10ft by 11ft space, making gun gestures with their fingers and holding the weapons for boomerang videos.

Afterwards, the images were posted to Instagram – where Dusty had 300,000 followers – and the guns were traded away for an old Yamaha dirt bike, according to Mitchell.

‘People left comments like, beautiful photos but I don’t like guns. And then we would comment back saying they’re not guns, they’re just props. That was made abundantly clear online,’ he said.

‘Sage also posted her own photos from that shoot. There’s a video of her and Dusty in there posing like it’s Charlie’s Angels. When we weren’t taking photos we only played Mario Kart in that room.’

The Buttons claim they’ve never met or heard of Jane Doe 100 who didn’t appear in the original version of the civil complaint but was added last December.

They say their receipts demonstrate they purchased the Airsoft guns in January and February of 2017, three years after Jane Doe 100 says she met them.

‘It’s possible she read Sage’s claim or she had seen this picture on Instagram and decided to use it,’ added Dusty.

There is no disputing that Humphries, on the other hand, frequently visited the Buttons’ home in 2017.

Now in her seventh season at Boston Ballet, Humphries claims the Buttons threatened to wreck her fledgling career unless she moved in with them and submitted to their warped sexual demands.

She and the other accusers say the pair are ‘seasoned’ predators who used Dusty’s clout in the dance world to take financial and emotional control of their lives.

In their August 2022 counterclaim, Dusty and Mitchell present a trove of texts, cards and selfies to suggest their tryst – or ‘throuple’ – with Humphries was consensual and that she repeatedly professed her love for them.

In messages the then-19-year-old writes ‘I’m yours’ and ‘come get me please… I need to be in your arms’. She adds in a card: ‘I hope I can show you how truly I cherish you. I love you Dusty. Forever.’

The Buttons say Humphries penned songs for them entitled ‘Don’t Ever Leave Me’ and ‘Mr Ferrari’, the latter a reference to Mitchell’s custom car business, which he set up after leaving the dance industry in his mid-20s.

‘Button Built’ Ferraris and trucks were showcased in motoring magazines and sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece until Mitchell and Dusty’s careers were ‘flatlined’ by the abuse allegations, the couple say.

According to their filing, Humphries continued to contact them even after her parents intervened in the relationship and took her back to California to undergo therapy, writing: ‘Come get me. Save me … they had me talk to this lawyer.’

It was Michael and Micah Humphries who pressed her to file for an abuse prevention order and then, years later, a ‘spurious’ civil lawsuit, the Buttons allege.

Their counterclaim further accuses the Humphries of calling in a false tip to the Boston Police Department in 2017 reporting that the ‘Buttons’ apartment contained dangerous weapons, specifically 50 illegal automatic weapons, landmines and grenades.’

‘None of this was true and Micah knew this was not true. She told the police that she was the Buttons’ neighbor and could see into their apartment … the Buttons later confirmed that the telephone number that had called in the false report matched that of Micah Humphries,’ the filing states.

The extraordinary claim is one of numerous allegations the two sides will level at one another when the case eventually goes before a jury at the US District Court in Nevada, where the Buttons now live.

The plaintiffs are eyeing more than $130 million in damages for mental anguish and physical and psychological injuries.

The accusers’ attorney Sigrid McCawley – who also represents victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell – told DailyMail.com in a statement: ‘As put forth in our complaint, Dusty and Taylor Button assaulted seven different dancers, including women who have chosen to make their claims anonymously.

‘The Buttons’ on-their-heels assertion now that seven different women made up detailed and harrowing accounts of abuse for fame is absurd.

‘A judge in Boston granted Sage Humphries a permanent restraining orders against the Buttons after hearing her testimony, and stated that he ‘fully credited’ her testimony making clear that he was satisfied ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ that the Buttons’ conduct amounted to abuse under the criminal laws.

‘The Buttons are not only engaging in shameless victim-blaming, but they are also intentionally violating the Boston court’s restraining orders, which mandated them to surrender information that they stole from Ms. Humphries’ cell phone to the Boston Police Department.

‘The Buttons are abusers of young vulnerable women who were in their sphere of influence as aspiring dancers and now the rule of law.’

Dusty told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview, ‘The first time any of this was mentioned I was in the middle of teaching 250 children. With the language they used, they wanted people to believe that I raped children.

‘It’s disgusting, the allegations make zero sense. All I’ve ever done is try to protect kids in this industry. I know 100 percent that we’ve never done anything wrong.’

Mitchell said their lives have ‘flatlined’ with sponsors, friends and business partners shunning them after the story broke last summer.

‘The headlines were like a dagger to the back,’ he said. ‘Minor raped at gunpoint by a famous ballerina and her husband. Every media outlet in the world would pick that up, why wouldn’t they?

‘Look at Amber Heard. She was recorded and proven in court to have abused Johnny Depp multiple times while he didn’t reciprocate. But somehow she’s a victim still and everyone will band behind her because she’s a female.

‘And that’s kind of where we’re at now. It’s just about trying to survive. Both of us would have taken our own lives months into this if we weren’t together. It feels like you’re drowning and someone’s got their boot on your face.’

With 300,000 Instagram followers and a brand ambassador role with Red Bull – the first ever for a ballerina – Dusty was among the most idolized dancers on the planet until last summer.

Her path to greatness was atypical in the regimented ballet world. While her rivals had trained from a young age and attended prestigious, pricey schools, Dusty didn’t start classes until she was 10 or 11.

When she earned a scholarship to the storied Royal Ballet School in London, her family, friends and church congregation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, raised funds for her to go.

In 2012 Dusty won a spot at the renowned Boston Ballet despite auditioning in basketball shoes and sweatpants. Within two years she was principal ballerina with a huge following on Instagram, showcasing dazzling routines to hip hop music.

‘It ruffled a few feathers, that’s for sure. I think that explains a lot of this,’ she said.