Charlie Sheen is suing the National Enquirer and its parent company, American Media, Inc. for defamation and false light, claiming in court documents obtained by PEOPLE that the tabloid publication falsely asserted that he sexually assaulted Corey Haim more than 30 years ago.
On Friday, Sheen filed suit against the National Enquirer, American Media, Inc. (AMI), its chief content officer Dylan Howard and former actor Dominick Brascia in Los Angeles Superior Court and is seeking a jury trial, “general and special damages in the amount to be proven at trial,” “exemplary and punitive damages” and attorney’s fees.
The National Enquirer claimed in a report published Nov. 8, that a then 19-year-old Sheen — who revealed in 2015 that he is living with HIV — sexually assaulted 13-year-old Haim on set of the 1986 film Lucas; the allegations were made by actor and Haim’s close friend, Brascia.
A spokesperson for Sheen previously told PEOPLE, “He absolutely denies the claim.”
According to the court documents, Sheen’s attorneys call the story an “egregious, hurtful, and disgusting campaign of defamations, falsely asserting that Mr. Sheen sodomized a thirteen-year-old celebrity actor Corey Haim, now deceased. In fact, Mr. Haim passed over seven years ago and the conduct alleged happened more than thirty years ago, when Mr. Sheen was nineteen.”
In Sheen’s lawsuit, it’s alleged that Howard, National Enquirer‘s top editor, “is on an active vendetta against” the Two and a Half Men actor.
“National Enquirer states that there are hundreds of people to support these ridiculous assertion, yet the only person actually quoted, Defendant Dominick Brascia, has himself been accused of having sexually molested Corey Haim! Just as offensive is that the editor of National Enquirer, Defendant Dylan Howard, is running the story against Mr, Sheen because of a personal vendetta that arose after he was unable to be the first to break the story that Mr. Sheen was HIV positive.”
According to the court documents, “the cruel and malicious publication of these stories is particularly offensive because Mr. Sheen is a father of five and has children approximately the age of Mr. Haim.”
“This story is not only damaging and offensive to Mr. Sheen, but hurtful to his family and young children as well,” the court documents state.
The suit states, “With calculated malice, the National Enquirer has concluded that it can make money by running false and salacious stories claiming that Mr. Sheen is a sexual molester that preys on young pubescent boys.”
After the National Enquirer story was published, Haim’s mother, Judy Haim, denied that Sheen abused her son. “Haim’s own mother has publicly and categorically denied that any sort of sexual rendezvous occurerd between her son and ,” the suit states.
In a statement to PEOPLE on Friday, an AMI spokesperson said, “We look forward to litigating against Charlie Sheen, and can’t wait to expose his depravities in a court of law.”
Reps for Howard and Brascia did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.