Hannah Harding parted a thick wooden gate and walked into the barely lit labyrinth of the Hollywood club Cloak & Dagger on Oct. 22, 2019.
An evening at the Goth club, where a cast of experimental artists performed eerie, sexually charged ceremonies each week in the back rooms of the Pig ’N Whistle bar, was a coveted invitation: an uninhibited, LGBTQ-friendly, members-only club where underground DJs, actors, rockers and adventurous partygoers could revel in safety and secrecy.
The scene felt a little spooky, but that was part of the appeal for the then-21-year-old.
As the party ramped up in the main “black room,” actor Thomas Middleditch, best known for his role as Richard Hendricks on the HBO series “Silicon Valley,” approached Harding on the dance floor, she said. He’d met Harding at the club before. Staff had brought concerns about his behavior to co-founders Adam Bravin and Michael Patterson.
Harding said Middleditch made lewd sexual overtures toward her and her girlfriend. She turned him down, but he kept pursuing her, groping her in front of her friends and several employees, including the club’s operations manager, Kate Morgan.
Morgan said she asked her bosses to kick Middleditch out and ban him, but they didn’t seem to take it seriously.
“I felt like they dismissed it,” she said. “I told Adam that he needed to listen, that this was not OK.”
Harding has Instagram direct messages from Middleditch, seen by The Times, saying, “Hannah I had no idea my actions were that weird for you … I know you probably want to just put me on blast as a monster … I don’t expect you to want to be my friend or anything … I am so ashamed I made you uncomfortable.”
A representative for Middleditch declined a request for comment.
Ten women, including four former employees, told The Times that Bravin and Patterson — prominent artists in L.A.’s rock and electronic music scenes — ignored sexual misconduct among members at Cloak and at its festivals. They allege that the owners took cover under the club’s secrecy and boundary-pushing aesthetic, until a Zoom call in June, when members unloaded on Bravin and Patterson about how they’d been treated.
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