Social media influencer Braden Peters accused of rape and drugging minor in Massachusetts

Braden Peters, a 20-year-old social media influencer who goes by "Clavicular" online, has been accused by a 17-year-old girl of rape. Peters is known for "looksmaxxing" — a digital subculture focused on maximizing male physical appearance.

According to court records obtained by NPR, Peters faces three counts stemming from an alleged incident on May 23, 2025: rape, drugging a person for sexual intercourse, and procuring and providing liquor to a person under 21.

The charges against Peters, filed in Orleans District Court on Cape Cod, Mass., on Sept. 8, were first reported in the online news publication The Bulwark.

NPR attempted to contact Peters at the phone number listed in the court documents, but received an error message saying the call could not be completed. In an email statement to NPR, Peters' representative, Mitchell Jackson, said Peters "denies the allegations."

A police narrative in the court documents states that the victim began communicating with Peters on Instagram, where he paid her to appear on his livestreams to help her "make her name known on social media."

The documents show that on May 23, 2025, Peters arranged for the minor to come to his home in Chatham, Mass.

At his home, Peters allegedly instructed the victim to say she was 18 on his videostream and to claim the alcohol on camera was water instead of vodka. The victim said she felt peer-pressured to drink the spirit, and that she became noticeably intoxicated after a couple of drinks.

The allegations go on to state that after stopping off the stream, Peters and the minor kissed on a couch and then had sex in his bed without her consent. The plaintiff said she did not receive a sexual assault forensic exam after the incident. NPR does not name alleged victims of sexual assault.

The same teenager had previously filed a civil lawsuit in Florida against Peters alleging battery, fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and unauthorized use of name/likeness. That complaint, filed in April in Miami-Dade County, included claims that Peters plied her with alcohol and engaged in non-consensual sexual acts at his parents' Cape Cod house while she was a minor, alongside claims that he injected her face with an unapproved fat-dissolving substance during a livestream.

Andrew Moss, a lawyer representing the girl in the Miami case, confirmed that the plaintiff in both the Miami and Massachusetts cases are the same person.

Peters' representative, Jackson, ridiculed how the plaintiff has handled the legal process. "She files a lawsuit and doesn't include sexual assault as a count. Then she amends it and adds it a couple of months later," Jackson said in an email. "Clavicular then filed a motion to dismiss fighting the civil lawsuit because letter/text messages show she knew what was happening with the injections and he refused to pay money. She and her lawyer then go to police."

This is not Peters' first run-in with the law.

In March, for instance, the Osceola County Sheriff's Office in Florida issued an arrest warrant after law enforcement determined Peters instigated a physical fight between two women at an Airbnb rental and posted the footage online. He was taken into custody. The charges were later dropped.

Then in April, Peters was charged with unlawfully shooting a firearm after a viral video showed Peters and others firing a gun at a dead alligator from an airboat in the Florida Everglades.

Peters has not released an official public statement about the charges. But he did express disdain for the plaintiff in a series of social media posts on X.

"Trying to get my attention in any way possible, a lawsuit? Seriously… really petty of you," Peters said in one post on Monday evening. Another includes video footage in which a shirtless Peters asks a young woman (who's wearing a long-sleeve shirt over a tank top) how old she is. "You're 16?" he asks. "Absolutely not," she responds. "18." Slurring her words, she then asks her companion for his age. "19," he says.

Peters' arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 14.