The ex-boyfriend of a Real Housewives of New York star is accused of raping a woman on a beach in the Hamptons in 2001.
Garth Wakeford, a South African personal trainer, was in a relationship with reality TV star Luann de Lesseps from August 2020 to April 2021.
Wakeford is now accused in a criminal complaint filed last week of raping drunken Sarah Maslin Nir in 2001, when she was 18 and he was 31.
Wakeford was working as a bouncer at a Hamptons nightclub at the time.
Now a breaking news journalist at The New York Times, Maslin Nir filed her suit under New York’s year-long Adult Survivors Act, which allowed people to bring cases that would otherwise be barred by the statute of limitations.
Other high-profile men who faced lawsuits last week accusing them of sexual assault include Eric Adams, Diddy, Axl Rose and Jamie Foxx.
Maslin Nir claims in documents obtained by The New York Post, that she was attacked by Wakeford after visiting the bar where he worked. She is charges alleging battery and false imprisonment.
Garth Wakeford, a South African personal trainer (left), is accused of raping Sarah Maslin Nir (right) in 2001, when he was 31 and she was 18. He denies the allegations
Luann de Lesseps, a reality show star on Real Housewives of New York, dated Wakeford for eight months starting in August 2020
Maslin Nir had just graduated from high school when she and her friends went to Stephen Talkhouse, a popular music venue in Amagansett that is still open.
Maslin Nir said Wakeford, who worked there, knew the group was underage but “allowed them to enter the venue without showing identification.”
She claims he “ordered the bartender to serve Nir numerous drinks ‘on him.’
Nir said Wakeford offered to take her home after his shift to her parents’ house, which was just a few miles away, and she accepted because she thought he was “safe.”
She said she was “extremely and visibly intoxicated,” and that instead of driving her home, Wakeford took her to the beach at the end of Springs Fireplace Road in East Hampton.
Nir said she was so drunk she “physically couldn’t get out of the car or walk on her own” — so the 6-foot-2 personal trainer carried her “as she lost consciousness.”
Maslin Nir claims in new lawsuit that Wakeford raped her when she was 18 and ‘extremely drunk’
She woke up on the beach with her underwear around her ankles, and “Wakeford was on top of her, penetrating her with his penis.”
She claims in the lawsuit: ‘She struggled to break away from Wakeford, repeating ‘no’ and ‘stop’.
“But Wakeford pinned her to the ground and told her, ‘Wait, I’m almost done.’
‘Nir somehow managed to raise her knees and pushed Wakeford out of her body.
‘As she did so, Wakeford ejaculated in her face, causing her eyes to become red and burning.’
Nir did not report the incident at the time, but crossed paths with Wakeford a year later and confronted him, insisting she “wasn’t there” on the beach. She says he agreed with her assessment.
He said she thought it was the worst thing he had ever done to anyone.
Nir said she told therapists, friends and family about the alleged incident over the years and went to East Hampton police in 2017, but she stopped filing a report when she realized the officer knew Wakeford.
In 2019, she returned to police, who investigated but filed no charges.
She said in her suit that she has endured “lasting trauma” and suffers from “extreme emotional distress,” has difficulty “forming relationships” and with “physical intimacy.”
She said she sometimes has panic attacks and vomiting, both leading up to and during sexual intimacy and intercourse.
Maslin Nir appearing at the Young Fellows Ball at the Frick Museum in New York City in March 2016
Wakeford is pictured at a party in East Hampton in August 2017
Roberta Kaplan, her attorney, told The New York Post: “New York’s Adult Survivors Act (or ‘ASA’) was passed just over a year ago so that people who have been victims of a sexual assault that has occurred a long time ago took place, at a time when social attitudes were very different, could have a real chance of finally seeking and obtaining justice.
“That is exactly what the case we filed last week before Ms. Maslin Nir is about. We are so honored to represent her.”
A spokesman for Wakeford said her claims were ‘baseless’ and he looked forward to clearing his name.
“These claims are meritless and baseless,” the spokesperson said.
‘In fact, Ms Nir’s brother and sister-in-law employed Mr Wakeford as a trainer for eight years following the alleged attack.
“Mr. Wakeford looks forward to establishing the facts surrounding their consensual relationship in the course of this baseless lawsuit, which is based on lies.”