Did Sylvester Stallone molest his half-sister?

Sylvester Stallone was not immune to allegations of sexual abuse, those claims made in the 1980’s by his half-sister, Toni-Ann Filiti, who accused Stallone of abusing her for years.

Stallone joined the ranks of other celebrities to include Woody Allen, Michael Jackson, Bill Cosby and a host of others, who over the past decades had to fight their own battles over charges of sexual abuse and or sexual assault.

Jackson reportedly paid out over $200 million in hush money to as many as 20 victims to keep them silent.

Cosby wanted his hush money back from one of his accusers, Andrea Constand, he paid off ten years ago to make her sexual assault lawsuit go away. It was during the deposition in that case in 2005 that Cosby admitted to giving drugs to women before he had sex with them.

What makes celebrities stand out from the rest of us is that when confronted with these allegations often times they do what most of us cannot do or would not do if confronted with similar charges, and that is they pay off their accusers.

But what does that really do?  Sure their accusers will be forbidden to talk about it after taking the money and signing legal documents, but the shadow of the accusations will remain with those celebrities forever, at least in the minds of the public, who will forever be thinking; could the allegations have been true.

Paying off an accuser usually has an added benefit and that is they thwart criminal charges. The average citizen usually doesn’t have the finances to engage in this type of conduct, but a celebrity, some of whom have net worth’s in the multi-million dollar range, can literally buy their way out of a criminal charge by silencing their accusers with hush money.

Many people idolize celebrities to the point that they make them out to be something they are not. They are no different from anyone else. Sure they might have fame and more money than most of us, but in reality, they are nothing more than that. They are no better or worse than other members of society.

When it comes to actors sometimes we forget that the roles played by these actors are exactly that, roles. They may be on screen heroes to some but that is where it ends.  What they do on screen is make- believe, fake, nothing more than what most of us did as children and that is to role play.

Celebrities, politicians, athletes and anyone else in the public eye often-times find themselves the targets of blackmailers. Fabricating claims to extort money is nothing new.

But as a former criminal investigator I become suspicious when I hear that some celebrity paid off an accuser, not because the charges were true according to the celebrity, but to stop public scrutiny and bad press if the matter would be pursued.

I guess I have more respect for myself because I would never pay anyone, not one penny, if I were being accused of something I did not do.  My self-respect and integrity would take over.

Who in their right mind would pay someone millions of dollars just to end false accusations of sexual abuse, especially if one would have the money to fight the alleged false accusations?

Besides being a crime, sexual abuse against another human being is one of the most despicable acts one can be accused of.  And to justify that paying someone off just to end bad publicity, to me, just makes no sense.

But that is just what Sylvester Stallone allegedly did in 1987. He paid off his half-sister, Toni-Ann Filiti, to destroy recordings that could have pictured him as a sexual abuser. Stallone agreed to pay her off to make the lawsuit go away, and as part of the deal, Stallone got to see the tapes Filiti was using against him destroyed.

To this day no one has said what exactly was on those cassette tapes, but they were allegedly conversations between Stallone and Filiti, which might have backed up her abuse allegations.

The story first broke in 2013 after paperwork obtained by the New York Post’s Page Six indicated the agreement was signed in 1987 and showed that Stallone agreed to pay Filiti $2 million plus $16,666 every month in her lifetime, on top of a trust with $50,000 per year for medical and psychiatric expenses.

In a separate case, an employee of Toni-Ann Filiti, Kenneth Chiaramonte, claimed in court documents in 2012 that Filiti had been sexually abused by a member of her own family.

Her son Edd told the media that his mother was made into a “black sheep” and said that she had told him of the abuse she suffered before she died. Edd has continually told the press that his mother was right all along and that Stallone had abused her when Stallone was younger and then paid her hush money to make the scandal go away.

Stallone has denied the accusations and Stallone’s mother has called her daughter a drug addict who would do anything for money, and that lawyers drew up the settlement at the height of Stallone’s career so they wouldn’t have to deal with her.

Tori-Ann Filiti died of lung cancer in August 2012.

Stallone has had other problems during his career that he had to deal with.

In 2001, exotic dancer, Margie Carr filed a lawsuit claiming Stallone had sexually assaulted her in an office at the Santa Monica Bodybuilding Center in 2000, where they both worked out.  After ripping her clothes off the suit alleged, Stallone attempted to forcibly have sexual intercourse with her on a couch.  Stallone denied the allegations.

In 2007 Stallone plead guilty in Sydney, Australia to bringing vials of restricted muscle-building hormones into Australia.

Stallone was accused of bringing banned substances into Australia after a customs search of his luggage during a Feb. 16, 2007 visit to Sydney revealed 48 vials of the human growth hormone, Jinthropin.

The prosecutor, David Agius told the court that Stallone had thrown four vials of the male hormone, Testosterone, from his Sydney hotel room when customs officials arrived to search it.

In 2008 Stallone’s’ ex-fiancée, and Cosby accuser, former supermodel, Janice Dickinson, told the press that Stallone was taken into custody in Japan after being caught with the same muscle-building drug he was convicted for possession of in Australia the previous year.

Dickenson told a U.S TV show that Stallone had taken the drugs to boost his body during their relationship in the early 1990’s, and claimed that Stallone once injected her in the arm when she was asleep. Stallone denied the allegations at the time.

Dickenson at the time insisted she was telling the truth and demanded an apology from Stallone for branding her a liar. She also allegedly threatened to reveal all about Stallone’s past if he refused to do as she wanted.

Dickenson stated, “If he doesn’t shut his big mouth, I’m going to really tell everybody what he did to me.  If he doesn’t retract calling me a liar, I’m ready to really talk- and he doesn’t want that, so he’d better make nice…”

On Sep. 6, 2013, former boxer and Stallone bodyguard, Michael De Luca was shot and killed by Port Hueneme, California police. According to the police De Luca’s pickup apparently hit a palm tree on the sand near the entrance to a parking lot at Hueneme Beach Park. De Luca reportedly was uncooperative with officers and told them he had a handgun.

Officers then drew their weapons and were involved in a confrontation. After using a Taser stun gun on him, which was ineffective, De Luca was shot and killed.

No handgun was found at the scene.

Stallone has also come under scrutiny for being one of the most anti-gun celebrities in Hollywood.  He has voiced his opinion on gun control and gun violence in America many times.

In 1998 Stallone told Access Hollywood “It’s ending, it’s over, all bets are off, it’s not 200 years ago, we don’t need [the Second Amendment] anymore, and the rest of the world doesn’t have it, why should we.”

“Until America, door to door, takes every handgun, this is what you’re gonna have, it’s pathetic. It really is pathetic.  It’s sad.  We’re living in the Dark Ages [in America].”

In 2012, Stallone called for banning assault weapons.

In this country everyone is entitled to their opinion and we all have the right to do so. But what I find hypocritical is these anti-gun actors who have made multi-millions of dollars making and promoting their violent films and then come out and talk about gun violence in America.

I guess the guns are okay to them as long as they make their millions of dollars off their violent gun-toting movies.

Like I said, just a little hypocritical.

The real story is that it’s about the money and their persona as action heroes.  Without the violence and the guns Stallone and others would not be who they are!

In 1987 Stallone’s movie, Over the Top, was released. Portions of the movie were shot at what was then, The Las Vegas Hilton Hotel.

While filming there Stallone had a room at the Las Vegas Hilton and was allegedly involved in an incident with a 15-year-old girl inside his room.

According to a former Las Vegas Police detective who was involved with the investigation, one of Stallone’s bodyguards took the 15-year-old girl, a fan, to Stallone’s room to meet Stallone.

According to the 15-year-old girl, who was later interviewed by a female detective from the Sexual Assault Unit, Stallone masturbated in front of her, onto the drapes in the room, and allegedly told the girl, “This is how a real man comes.”

The girl’s parents called the police after she told them what had happened and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department conducted the investigation.

Later, everything came to a screeching halt when the girl’s father told the police they wanted to drop the complaint. Whether the father did this to save his daughter from any embarrassment or Stallone’s people had done damage control was never known.

But the case was dead.

What then Clark County Sheriff, John Moran, did do was tell Stallone’s bodyguard that they were forbidden to carry a concealed weapon in Clark County and pulled the permits.

In Nevada, anyone who would have been arrested and convicted of such an offense would be a registered sex offender for life.

Whether the girls’ accusations were true, we will never know. I do know the incident happened because one of the retired detectives who was involved in the case told me so. And he first told me this almost twenty years ago, way before the other allegations surfaced in 2013.

What I do find interesting is that this incident, which was never made public to my knowledge, was very close to the time period that Stallone’s half-sister made her allegations.

As a former police officer I do know one thing: Anyone who masturbates in front of a 15 year old girl is a sick bastard.  And chances are that would not be the first time they engaged in improper sexual conduct.