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ABC’s latest Bachelor franchise endeavor is a new show dubbed The Proposal. It aired Monday, June 18 right after The Bachelorette to less than stunning reviews and now the second episode of the season will not air after serious allegations were made against one of the show’s contestants.
Contestant Michael J. Friday was accused by Erica Denae Meshke, who is not on the show, for helping organize her sexual assault in November 2017. In a public Facebook post, Meshke accused Friday of being the catalyst for her date rape.
Meshke says that she met Friday on Tinder. They matched and he wanted to meet up, but she had one condition, it had to be in a public place. They met up at the “lobby/entertainment room” at the Diamond Tower in the Milwaukee area.
“When I arrived, it was just [Friday] and two other 50ish year-old [sic] men whom he referred to as his “friends,” Meshke wrote on Facebook. “They poured me a drink, and then I was left alone with the two older men. The original guy never came back, despite me calling and texting. I was told by his friends that he would be back soon. So while I waited, I accepted another drink, which I know now was spiked.”
She then goes on to say that the two men brought her upstairs into an apartment and assaulted her. She only once ever ran into Friday again at a bar. She confronted him about what he did but he tried to justify his actions.
“I’ve heard so many similar bait-and-catch horror stories, and it’s sickening,” she continued. “Protect your fellow women, and keep trash like this accountable for their actions.”
After her assault, she told her friends and a Facebook group that she’s in to stay away from this man. She attached a screenshot from the Facebook group post that she made a few days after being assaulted in the comments. The screenshot shows Meshke identifying Friday by photo and the dates from the Facebook group post line up to when she says she was assaulted in early November 2017.
Meshke also commented that five woman have since confided in her about their sexual assault that was caused by Friday as well.
This serious allegation comes after Bachelorette contestant Lincoln Adim’s sexual assault history was made known. On May 21, 2018, he was convicted of indecent assault and battery for groping a woman on a cruise ship in 2016. For some reason, casting didn’t catch this public knowledge while casting Adim and they also didn’t catch Friday’s assault history.
ABC needs to do better and stop casting sexual abusers on their shows.