A male escort claims that a married client who’s into S&M got mad that they couldn’t have a real relationship and ruined his professional reputation with false smears, according to a new lawsuit.
Matthew Mills — an aspiring photographer who supplemented his income as an escort on Rent.Men — says he was hired by David Polanco in May 2018 to spank his butt with a paddle and be his companion, according to a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed late Thursday.
But Polanco — who was married to another man — allegedly wanted their whip sessions to turn into a real relationship, the suit says.
Mills said he only wanted to keep their kinky hook-ups professional. But Polanco allegedly didn’t like this and “constantly” threatened to spread lies to Rent.Men “at any point which he felt [Mills] was not sufficiently interested in him,” the court papers claim.
Mills, 40, said Polanco came up with bogus claims that he extorted and assaulted him and reporting it to Rent.Men, the lawsuit claims. He also allegedly made reports to the police about Mills, though it wasn’t clear what exactly were contained in his claims.
Polanco, 53, got an order of protection against Mills after filing a false Family Court claim and even pressed criminal charges for alleged assault and harassment by turning their S&M sessions against Mills claiming they weren’t consensual, the court papers allege.
For instance, on July 28 in one of these sessions Polanco pushed Mills to get drunk and “smack and paddle [Polanco], as well as act in an authoritative manner towards [Polanco],” the suit alleges.
“Caught up in the moment, in additional to smack[ing] [Polanco] on his butt, [Mills] lightly slapped [Polanco] on his face,” which he apologized for and the pair moved on from, the suit says.
But in August, as things began to sour between the pair, Polanco sent a message to Mills saying, “You were a useful rental and now I am discarding you… I informed rent boy of how you ASSAULTED-even-after I request you not do so in a note…piss off you pathetic whore,” the court papers say.
“Plaintiff vehemently disputes that he assaulted Defendant in any way,” the suit says adding “any physical contact between the parties was done either at the specific request of Defendant, or was completely inadvertent and unintentional.”
In the Manhattan Family court petition from August, Polanco falsely accused Mills of threatening to expose their affair to his husband if he didn’t pay him money and claimed that Mills had choked and punched him, the court papers say.
Mills’ lawyer said that his client took a conditional dismissal to have the criminal charges against him tossed and sealed.
Because of the “barrage of false allegations against him, Plaintiff has suffered a notable decrease in selling his time and companionship to others through Rent.Men,” the lawsuit alleges.
Also, Mills “has become paranoid,” and reluctant to leave his home out of fear Polanco will cause him further harm or “make further false allegations against him,” the court documents say.
Mills’ lawyer, Jeremy Feigenbaum of firm Spodek Law Group, said, “Our client entered into a consensual, professional relationship with the defendant, who is now seeking to exploit our clients’ professional field in maintaining a campaign of terror against him.”
Mills is suing Polanco for at least $550,000.
Polanco did not immediately return a voicemail message.