'Home Alone' Actor Under Investigation For Alleged Rape
Devin Ratray, 45, is being investigated for allegedly raping a woman in his Manhattan apartment in 2017.
Angela Weiss via Getty Images
The New York Police Department is investigating Devin Ratray, the actor best known for playing older brother “Buzz” in the Home Alone films, for a rape that allegedly happened in 2017, according to CNN.
The investigation comes less than a year after Ratray made headlines when he was arrested in December 2021 for allegedly assaulting his then-girlfriend in Oklahoma, Rolling Stone UK reported.
When news of his arrest went public, Lisa Smith decided to follow up on a police report she filed in 2017, accusing the actor of rape.
“Seeing that he was accused of assaulting someone else made me realize that I needed to do whatever I could to prevent him from hurting even more women,” Smith told CNN.
According to Smith, the two had been friends for 15 years. One night in September 2017 in New York City, Smith said she believed she was drugged because she grew extremely tired after drinking a beverage given to her by Ratray at his apartment.
“I remember waking up and I couldn’t move. I couldn’t really open my eyes, but I could hear what was happening and I could feel what was happening,” Smith told CNN. “I knew that the other two people were gone and I was still on the couch.”
Smith alleges it was then that Ratray sexually assaulted her for what felt like “an eternity.”
Smith told CNN she filed a police report after moving to Utah. An NYPD detective flew to Salt Lake City to interview her in November but wrote on the report Smith did not want to prosecute. Smith told CNN she never said she didn’t want to.
“Why would I have met with the DA in the first place, years ago, if I wasn’t willing to press charges? This was all very upsetting to me,” she said.
Ratray denies the allegation. “We did not have sex,” he is quoted as saying by Rolling Stone UK.
CNN reported that Smith met with a prosecutor from the Sex Crimes Unit at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, in May of this year. According to Smith, the office apologized for how they handled her case.
Smith said the prosecutor told her she “should have at least been offered victims counseling all of those years ago.”
“When she said that, I began to cry as I realized this was the first time anyone was acknowledging how deeply impacted I had been, or that I had been traumatized,” Smith said.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE for support.
