“Game of Thrones” actor Joseph Gatt sues City of Los Angeles, LAPD, and DA over false pedophile charges

Gatt was arrested in 2022 for allegedly engaging in sexually explicit online communication with a minor in another state.

Joseph Gatt, who played the Thenn warg in season 4 of Game of Thrones, is suing the City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Police Department, and L.A. District Attorney George Gascón, among others, for $40 million over dismissed pedophile charges stemming from a 2022 arrest.

In the suit, obtained by Entertainment Weekly, Gatt claims the defendants "publicly branded him as a serial pedophile," which in turn ruined his reputation and career. Gatt also alleges Deputy District Attorney Angela Brunson held "personal bias and animosity" towards him.

"The arrest and charges against Mr. Gatt — for which he was branded by the Los Angeles DA and LAPD as a serial pedophile — were based on fabricated evidence," Dean Z. Pamphilis, a partner with Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, said in a statement provided to EW.

Gatt was arrested in 2022 after allegedly engaging in sexually explicit online communication with a minor in another state. The interaction with the minor, the suit claims, resulted from a Cameo Gatt recorded for a 16-year-old fan's birthday. In the following months, the fan, who lived in Washington state, allegedly contacted Gatt on Instagram a couple times and Gatt " responded in a manner that was wholly appropriate and consistent with typical celebrity-fan exchanges."

The suit claims Gatt never actually met the teen fan and the defendants failed to "interview or even remotely assess for credibility" until nearly one year after Gatt's arrest.

"Twenty months later, when the fabricated evidence was finally disclosed to Mr. Gatt and Mr. Gatt’s forensic expert were prepared to expose the truth in open court, the Los Angeles DA voluntarily dismissed the criminal complaint," the statement continued. "Mr. Gatt, however, had already lost his community, his acting career, and his personal reputation. We look forward to recovering Mr. Gatt’s enormous losses in court."

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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.