A former Disney Channel child star has sued the Walt Disney Company, alleging that studio staff repeatedly threw her together with an adult crew member who she says raped and sexually assaulted her multiple times while she was just 14 years old — and that executives blamed her, rather than investigating, when her behavior changed.

Raquel Lee filed the negligence suit on Aug. 21 in Los Angeles Superior Court over her experience filming the 2001 Disney Channel movie "The Poof Point," according to Deadline, which first reported the filing. The suit alleges an unidentified middle-aged male employee involved in the production made repeated sexually explicit comments on set, then assaulted her on several occasions, including in a hotel room where cast and crew were staying and again during a flight to California.

"Told to Bond" With Her Alleged Abuser

According to the complaint, studio staff instructed Lee to "bond" with the man rather than keeping them apart, and Disney executives are accused of knowing about the abuse and choosing to conceal it instead of protecting a teenage performer. When her performance and demeanor changed during production, the suit alleges, the studio's response was to blame her rather than look into what was happening on set.

Lee says the abuse derailed what had been a promising acting career and left her with years of psychological harm. She has said publicly that she never returned to acting at the same level after 2001, attributing the drop-off to the trauma described in her complaint. A Disney spokesperson had not issued a public response as of Tuesday, according to the outlets that first reported the suit.

The lawsuit also surfaced a previously undisclosed chapter: Lee reached a confidential settlement in 2015 with Mark Curry, her on-screen father in "The Poof Point," represented at the time by attorney Gloria Allred. Neither Lee nor Curry has disclosed the terms of that settlement, and it is unclear from court filings how it relates to the abuse allegations now directed at Disney itself.

The suit lands amid a wave of California cases invoking the state's extended civil statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse claims, which has allowed alleged victims — including several former child actors — to sue studios and individuals decades after the alleged abuse occurred, even when no criminal charges were ever filed.

What's Next

Disney has not yet filed a formal response to the complaint. The case adds to a string of lawsuits in recent years accusing studios and networks of failing to protect child performers from adults on set, and legal observers say discovery — if the case proceeds past early motions — could force Disney to turn over decades-old personnel and production records from the film.