Country

Jimmie Allen is fighting back against a pair of lawsuits filed this spring that accused the country star of sexual assault, denying all the allegations and countersuing both women — claiming that one of them defamed him and that the other illegally swiped his cellphone. 
In documents filed Thursday (July 13) in Nashville federal court, Allen, 38, lodged his first formal responses to the two abuse lawsuits, which have seen the once-rising country star dropped from his label and removed from festival lineups. The first case claims he repeatedly assaulted an unnamed “Jane Doe” on his management team; the second claims he assaulted another woman in a Las Vegas hotel room and secretly recorded it. 

Allen’s lawyers went beyond simply denying those allegations in Thursday’s filings, bringing a countersuit against each accuser and seeking unspecified monetary damages. In the case of Allen’s former day-to-day manager, the attorneys claim that she defamed him by making “deliberate, intentional, malicious, and willful” statements to Variety beyond what is included in the lawsuit. Variety broke the news of her lawsuit in early May. 

“Throughout the Variety article, Jane Doe made several untruthful statements which painted Allen and Doe’s consensual affair as nonconsensual sexual misconduct,” his lawyers claim. “Allen’s reputation and relationships within the entertainment industry have also been severely damaged as a result Jane Doe’s statements in the Variety article.”

(Variety, which is owned by the same parent company as Billboard, is not named as a defendant or accused of any wrongdoing.) 

In responding to the second lawsuit, in which the woman claims that Allen surreptitiously filmed their sexual encounter, his lawyers say that she had explicitly consented to the recording — and that she then unfairly took his phone with her when she left the hotel. In technical terms, they accuse her of “conversion,” a civil tort similar to theft that involves someone taking property that doesn’t belong to them. 

“By taking his camera phone without permission, Jane Doe 2 wrongfully exerted a distinct act of dominion over Allen’s personal property,” his lawyers write. 

The attorney representing both of Allen’s Jane Doe accusers, Elizabeth Fegan of the law firm Fegan Scott, did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday morning. 

In a statement, Allen tells Billboard that he has “engaged with a legal team to proceed with an appropriate course of action,” saying he has done so in order to “protect my reputation and refute these claims that have caused severe damage to my family, mental health, and business.” 

“As the son and brother of rape victims, and the father of daughters, these false claims are extremely hurtful to me and everyone around me,” Allen said. “These false allegations have caused me to lose a vast number of business and endorsement opportunities that I worked extremely hard for. These false allegations have also not only harmed me, but have caused severe financial damage to my band, my team, and their families.”

A Rapid Fall

In the wake of the two lawsuits, Allen’s once-flourishing career has cratered.  

After signing with BMG’s Stony Creek/BBR imprint in 2017, Allen’s first two singles, “Best Shot” and “Make Me Want To,” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, while he scored a third No. 1 in 2021 with “Freedom Was a Highway” (with Brad Paisley). “Down Home,” the first single from his 2022 album, Tulip Drive, reached No. 2. He also performed for Garth Brooks at the superstar’s Kennedy Center Honors induction in 2021, and with Elton John on the legend’s 2021 album The Lockdown Sessions.

But following the accusations, his label, booking agency (UTA), former publicist (Full Coverage Communications) and management company (The Familie) have all suspended or dropped him. His live appearances have also dried up, including a June 11 performance during CMA Fest and several other summer festival gigs.

In addition to the career fallout, Allen has also separated from his wife, Alexis Gale, who is pregnant with their third child. The couple announced the news on social media, just weeks before the first lawsuit was filed and the accusations were made public. 

That first case, filed on May 11, alleged that Allen had “manipulated and used his power” over the plaintiff, who was employed by his then-management company Wide Open Management, in order to “sexually harass and abuse her” over a period of 18 months from 2020 to 2022. 

“Plaintiff expressed in words and actions that Jimmie Allen’s conduct was unwelcome, including pushing him away, sitting where he could not reach her, telling him she was uncomfortable and no, and crying uncontrollably,” the woman’s lawyers wrote in the complaint. “However, Allen made clear that plaintiff’s job was dependent on her staying silent about his conduct.”

Allen Responds

In Thursday’s response to those claims, Allen tells a different story — one of “a consensual sexual relationship” in which encounters were “initiated by both Allen and Doe,” an affair that he says he ended in the fall of 2022 to “focus on repairing his relationship with his wife.” He says the first time he heard any claim about “improper conduct” was in November 2022, when he was contacted by her attorney. 

In counter-suing for defamation, Allen’s lawyers focus on Doe’s statements made to Variety rather than the actual claims in her lawsuit — likely because it’s harder to bring such claims over statements made as part of a judicial proceeding. The article, Allen says, contained “several pieces of information that were not included in her complaint,” as well as statements that “disparaged” him, including calling him a “threat.” 

“The statements … caused great damage to Allen, including impairment of his reputation and standing in the community, personal humiliation, and mental anguish and suffering,” his lawyers write. In technical terms, they also accuse Doe of invasion of privacy, inflicting emotional distress, and interference with business relations. 

The second case against Allen, filed on June 9, was brought by a woman identified as Jane Doe 2, who accused him of battery, assault and other wrongdoing over a July 2022 incident at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas. Though she had “willingly joined Allen in the bedroom,” she claimed she had “repeatedly told him she did not want him to ejaculate inside her” because she was not on birth control, but that Allen had done so anyway. 

The June lawsuit also claimed that, after the sexual encounter, Doe 2 discovered a cell phone in a closet of the hotel room, “focused on the bed, recording the scene.” She alleged that she had “not consented to being recorded” and that, after failing to convince Allen to allow her to unlock the phone to delete the recordings, she had taken it with her and later passed it along to the Las Vegas Police Department.  

In his response to that lawsuit on Thursday, Allen admits to having “unprotected sex” with Doe, but claims that he “did not ejaculate during the encounter.”  He also acknowledged recording the incident but, crucially, alleges that he secured her explicit permission to do so while the pair kissed on a hotel balcony. 

“Before the encounter escalated further, Allen asked Jane Doe 2 if it was OK for him to set up his camera phone to record their encounter. Jane Doe 2 agreed,” Allen’s lawyers wrote of the incident. “Allen left the balcony and set up his camera phone in plain view at the foot of the bed. Allen and Jane Doe 2 began to engage in a consensual sexual encounter in view of the camera phone.” 

When he awoke to find that Doe 2 had “left the hotel room with his camera phone,” Allen claims that he texted her, to which she allegedly responded that she “did not approve of him recording their encounter.” When she “demanded the passcode to Allen’s camera phone” so that she could further delete the recording, he says he declined to offer it because the phone “contained several pieces of confidential personal and business information.” He says he offered to “delete the video to her satisfaction” if she returned the phone, but that she did not do so. 

“Allen still does not have possession of the camera phone,” his lawyers write. 

(When the second case was filed in June, a spokesperson for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department [LVMPD] confirmed to Billboard that “a report was completed” over the incident, but did not provide any additional information. A request for any public records linked to the report was unsuccessful.)

Former Manager Wants Out

Allen wasn’t the only defendant to file his response to the abuse lawsuits this week. On Tuesday, his former management company Wide Open Music filed a motion seeking to be dismissed from the first case, which claimed the company did not do enough to protect Allen’s day-to-day manager from his abusive behavior and had then fired her when she complained about it. 

In its response, attorneys for Wide Open Music (which parted with Allen in October 2022) expressed dismay at the woman’s allegations about Allen’s conduct, but said the company itself could not be held legally responsible. 

“Undoubtedly, if the actions she claims Allen took against her actually occurred, they are deplorable and clearly inappropriate,” the company’s lawyers wrote. “Despite the nature of the allegations, however, Plaintiff has not stated any plausible claims … that [Wide Open Music] should be held liable, either for its client’s misconduct or independently of it.” 

Following this week’s new filings, the Jane Doe plaintiffs will file their own responses in the months ahead, both to Allen’s new accusations and to Wide Open Music’s motion to be dismissed from the case. The case will then head toward more litigation and an eventual jury trial, but it could be years before such a courtroom showdown is reached. 

In his statement Thursday, Allen seemed intent on getting to such a trial: “As the legal process runs its course, I look forward to the opportunity to clear my name.” 

Stories about sexual assault allegations can be traumatizing for survivors of sexual assault. If you or anyone you know needs support, you can reach out to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). The organization provides free, confidential support to sexual assault victims. Call RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE) or visit the anti-sexual violence organization’s website for more information.