Oh Snap: Elmo’s Accuser Recants Recantation. UPDATE: Kevin Clash Resigns

from Stand Firm by Greg Griffith

The man who accused Elmo’s puppeteer of sexual misconduct reportedly wants to recant his recantation.

Sheldon Stephens, 24, last week withdrew sensational claims that, as an underage teen, he had a wild fling with Kevin Clash, the voice behind the beloved Muppet Elmo.

Now Stephens is interviewing lawyers in hopes of ripping up the $125,000 deal he reached with Clash, 52, to deny there was any illegal sex, according to TMZ.

Stephens’ Pennsylvania lawyers last week released a statement on his behalf, absolving Clash of any wrongdoing: “He [Stephens] wants it to be known that his sexual relationship with Mr. Clash was an adult consensual relationship.”

Clash, a divorced Upper West Side dad, went on a leave of absence from “Sesame Street” last week to fight the sordid accusations.

So giving Clash the benefit of the doubt, it looks like he left his wife and daughter and then began a gay sexual relationship a mentally unstable teenage boy who may have been as young as 16, which, if true, puts him below the age of consent in the state of New York, and makes Clash guilty of statutory rape.

Speaking of idiots, here’s somebody at the student newspaper for the University of Alabama-Birmingham, completely missing the point:

The only question left for people to wonder is whether or not Kevin Clash will continue to work on the famous children’s show now that he has been revealed as a gay man. In my opinion, Clash should continue to do the work. His sexuality has nothing to do with the character that children know and love. In fact, most children won’t even know who Kevin Clash is. At such a young age, children don’t think about who’s controlling the puppets; they just want to enjoy the show. Kevin Clash has provided the most to the Elmo that I grew up with, and I hope he returns to voicing the beloved puppet soon.

Reasonable people can debate whether his sexuality “has nothing to do with the character that children know and love,” but that’s not really the point. The point is, well, that whole having-a-sexual-relationship-with-a-boy-30-years-your-junior-and-possibly-being-a-statutory-rapist. But I digress.

UPDATE: TMZ is reporting that Kevin Clash has resigned as the voice of Elmo in the wake a brand-new allegation that Clash had sex with another underage boy. The second accuser claims he met Clash in a gay sex internet chat room when he was 15 and Clash was 32.