'Love Is Blind' creator speaks out after participant sues for assault, false imprisonment
Entertainment
Victim claimed she was falsely imprisoned while filming and producers acted with negligence
(Web Desk) - Love Is Blind's creator Chris Coelen is speaking out after a season 5 participant sued the production company behind his show over claims of assault, false imprisonment and negligence.
Tran Dang, who filmed for season 5 but is not featured in the episodes, is suing production company Kinetic Content after claiming she was sexually assaulted on set and Kinetic allegedly did nothing to stop it, according to a complaint obtained by PEOPLE.
In the suit, Dang also claimed she was falsely imprisoned while filming and producers acted with negligence.
Since her initial filing, Dang has also sued production company Delirium TV, which Kinetic alleged that it "delegated responsibility for shooting the relevant season of Love Is Blind," per the docs.
"The producers are throwing money at the problem by spending an inordinate amount of money on losing legal positions that do nothing but delay the parties from having their day in Court.
They lost on three distinct legal issues before the trial court and then filed three separate appeals to multiply the proceedings we have to wade through before finally trying this case," Dang's attorney Benjamin W. Allen of Wallace & Allen LLP tells PEOPLE in a statement via email.
"But we are confident that Ms. Dang's position will be vindicated once we get there and are committed to seeing it through all of the way. We have to hold the show producers accountable.
We have an ethical duty to our client to do so, but also feel a moral obligation to the next generation of reality show participants."
In his first statement regarding the news, Coelen speaks out to PEOPLE, calling Dang's claims "preposterous" and saying the lawsuit has "no merit because we were never told that she felt unsafe or experienced any of the allegations that she made."
"If anybody ever came to us and said they felt unsafe in any way, we would immediately remove them from the experiment and talk to them, and try to get to the bottom of it," he says.
"Unfortunately, in this case, that kind of sentiment was never addressed to us in any way, nor was any alleged wrongdoing brought to our attention ever."
