The Adam Savage Sexual Abuse Lawsuit
The push back I got for mentioning the lawsuit in a YouTube video.
When I posted a video on YouTube about an announcement from SiliCon With Adam Savage, the sexual abuse lawsuit filed by Savage’s younger sister, Miranda Pacchiana, as reported by People Magazine on June 30, 2020, was the centerpiece.
If I had known about the lawsuit prior to making a video in early July that SiliCon With Adam Savage would no longer be a physical event due to the coronavirus pandemic, I would have mentioned it then.
The lawsuit flew underneath my radar because the news media covered Savage as the former TV host of MythBusters. A TV show that I’ve heard about but never watched an episode. It didn’t any ring any bells for me.
My familiarity with Savage comes from his involvement as a panel moderator for Silicon Valley Comic Con (SVCC), hosted by Stan Lee and Steve Wozniak. After Lee died in November 2018, Wozniak hosted the last show in August 2019. Six months later, Savage announced that SVCC would become SiliCon With Adam Savage.
I came across the lawsuit through an indirect reference from an internet search that Savage had a sister. If Pacchiana was anything like her brother, I thought, she must be an extraordinary woman. But instead of being a maker of things, she’s a child sexual abuse survivor and advocate.
The lawsuit accused of Savage of sexually abusing Pacchiana from 1976 to 1979 in Sleepy Hollow, New York. He was 9 to 12 years old; she was 7 to 10 years old. I’m not going to repeat what allegedly happened between them. Read the People Magazine article for the lurid details.
Savage was quite vocal about denying the allegations and accusing his sister of pursuing “a financial bonanza” through the courts.
The latter point was especially true since the New York Child Victims Act waives the statute of limitations for any child abuse victims to file a lawsuit for monetary damages under a special one-year extension (recently extended to January 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic).
I’ve gotten some interesting push back for mentioning the lawsuit in my video.
The news media dropped the story because the lawsuit wasn’t worth pursuing.
Due the “she said, he said” nature of the allegations, the lawsuit became a one-day sensation in the court of public opinion.
- The New York Post wrote their story based on the legal complaint filed at the Westchester Supreme Court in White Plains, New York.
- People Magazine, Variety, and other publications wrote their stories based on The Post’s story.
- No other women had come forward to publicly accused Savage that he sexually abused them.
The lawsuit must work its way through the court of law in the next few years. Unless there’s an out-of-court settlement, the news media has nothing to report on until the court proceedings get underway. Only the judge can determine if the lawsuit was worthwhile or not.
He couldn’t have sexually abused his sister because he’s a Really Nice Guy.
That comment got an automatic facepalm from me. Surprising some people that I found their comment to be surprisingly stupid.
I’m quite certain Savage is a Really Nice Guy — today. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t an alleged douche bag towards his younger sister 40 years ago.
Since I’m in the same age group as Savage and Pacchiana, sibling abuse in the doesn’t surprise me. Like any form of abuse inside the home, no one talked about it. If anyone did talk about it, everyone denied it. No one took it seriously unless there was outright physical abuse.
Only sexual abuse victims who disclosed the nature of their own sexual abuse can talk about sexual abuse.
I’m not entirely sure why some people think that I must provide my own bona fides before I can talk about a particular topic. I didn’t mention my own sexual abuse experience because I didn’t think it was relevant for the video. For what it’s worth, here’s my story.
I threw out my back when I was in the third grade in 1977. Because I was the proverbial fat kid on the short yellow bus, the special ed classes were at an elementary school ten miles away from my home. My father worked 50 miles away in San Francisco and my mother didn’t drive.
School officials decided that my teacher should drive me in the back of her VW Bus to see her pediatrician. Since my family didn’t have a regular pediatrician at the time, he became my doctor.
Every visit ended with two things happening:
- He used a very cold gel to get his fat finger up my fat ass and sniff my poop without my mother or the nurse being present in the exam room.
- He requested a blood test from the lab next door.
Between the two, getting six blood tests was more traumatizing than a doctor fingering my fat ass six times in two years.
Every time I entered the lab, I got upset and started crying. Two big guys dressed in all white held me down on the exam table while the nurse drew my blood. Somehow I figured out how to run away inside my mind to hide a dark place while my body became weak from blood being withdrawn.
A useful technique 30 years later when I got my wisdom teeth pulled under local anesthesia. I ran away to that dark place inside mind while the oral surgeon injected the shots, banged away with his hammer and chisel, and apologized every five minutes. The nurse monitoring my blood pressure told me that I responded exactly like someone under general anesthesia.
My doctor suddenly quit his practice and retired to Florida when the district attorney’s office shut down medical labs for paying kickbacks on referrals. I don’t think he was ever prosecuted for requesting unneeded blood tests — or fingering fat boys.
I’ve made 38 videos about SVCC after I became serious about my YouTube channel in December 2017. My video coverage included announcements, live events, and behind the scene drama. I don’t see any reason to change my coverage for SiliCon With Adam Savage.
NOTE: According to court records, the lawsuit got settled on May 24, 2021, and dismissed on May 25, 2021. Details of the settlement weren’t made to the public. Pacchiana removed her blog post about Savage.
