WINTER PARK, FL — Comedian Carrot Top, who was hospitalized Friday night after a suicide attempt at his Las Vegas home, attempted to take his life days after allegations of sexual misconduct were made against him in an ongoing Florida lawsuit, court records show.
The 61-year-old comic, a Florida native whose real name is Scott Thompson, is accused of giving a 19-year-old man alcohol at his Winter Park home and engaging in sexual conduct with the teen, who was drunk and unable to consent at the time, according to a Sept. 14 court filing in Broward County.
The affidavit by Zachary Defazio, now 25, was filed in support of a lawsuit by Hallandale Beach musician Brian Evans against Thompson.
The comic's legal team claims that he was being extorted by Evans, who threatened to enter a sexually explicit recording of Thompson into the court's legal docket tied to the suit unless he was paid $500,000, TMZ reported.
The comedian remains hospitalized in Las Vegas as he recovers.
Evans denied the extortion attempt, telling TMZ, "I never threatened — ever — to post any video anywhere in exchange for a settlement. … The video they are discussing — as I made very clear — was deleted a long time ago in accordance with the prior settlement."
The musician added, "I do not consider Scott to be a bad person ... based on what I know — but he made a few decisions that were not good ones. That is not a reason to hurt himself."
Evans, once an opening act for the comedian, filed an Aug. 6 lawsuit against Thompson to overturn a previous legal settlement they'd entered, court records show.
He alleges that Thompson texted him an unsolicited sexually explicit video of the comic engaging in sexual acts with another man in 2022 or 2023, then convinced him to sign a settlement agreement in 2024.
The video caused him "immediate and severe emotional distress, shock, and lasting psychological harm that persisted and worsened following the Maui wildfire trauma," according to the complaint.
His legal team also called Thompson's sending the video "extreme and outrageous conduct that went beyond all possible bounds of decency."
The complaint said, "The transmission was intentional or reckless and caused Plaintiff severe emotional distress. Under Florida law, such conduct supports liability for intentional infliction of emotional distress."
In his complaint, Evans said that as he considered a settlement with Thompson, he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and other mental health issues following the August 2023 Maui wildfires.
These issues "substantially affected his judgment, concentration, decision-making abilities, emotional regulation, and ability to understand the nature and long-term consequences of complex contractual documents," according to the complaint. "These symptoms persisted throughout the period during which the agreement was negotiated and signed. Defendant [Thompson] knew of or reasonably should have known of Plaintiff's compromised mental and emotional state during this period, yet proceeded with settlement negotiations and obtained Plaintiff's signature on documents while Plaintiff was unable to fully comprehend their long-term legal consequences."
Evans also claimed that according to the settlement, Thompson agreed to "future professional assistance and entertainment opportunities," which never happened.
In an affidavit to support Evans' lawsuit, Defazio, a Florida resident, said he was 19 years old in March 2021, when he met Thompson, who was in his mid-50s at the time, on the gay dating app Grindr.
He said the comic pretended to be younger than he was by sending an anonymous torso photo "that looked like someone my age."
They met at an unnamed bar on Park Avenue in Winter Park, and "I found out who he was when I got there," Defazio said. "He used that status — celebrity, age, money, a house on Isle of Sicily [in Winter Park] — to get me to trust him."
In the following months, Thompson gave him alcohol at various bars, as well as the comedian's Las Vegas and Winter Park homes, he said.
"On October 8, 2021, after I was too drunk to consent, he engaged in sexual conduct with me that I did not consent to," Defazio wrote. "I was 19. I could not consent in that condition. I am a victim of Scott Thompson. That is not a theory. That is what he did."
Defazio said in the affidavit that he is "coming forward in Evans's cases because what he has told this Court about Thompson's pattern, as it concerns me, is true, and because I support him.
He also said that in June 2025, his lawyers "sent Thompson a registered-mail claim for sexual exploitation, emotional distress, and furnishing alcohol to a person under 21."
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