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Rapper Travell “G. Dep” Coleman, who walked into a New York police precinct in 2010 and admitted to committing a nearly two-decade-old cold case murder to clear his conscience, has been granted clemency by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
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Now 49, Coleman has served 13 of a 15-year-to-life sentence. With his sentence being commuted by the Democratic governor, he will now be allowed to seek parole earlier than his original 2025 date.
Coleman is one of 16 individuals granted clemency by Hochul in an announcement made Friday (Dec. 22). They include 12 pardons and four commutations. It marked the third time Hochul has granted clemency in 2023.
“Through the clemency process, it is my solemn responsibility as governor to recognize the efforts individuals have made to improve their lives and show that redemption is possible,” Hochul said in a written statement.
The rapper earned an associate’s degree while in prison and facilitated violence prevention and sobriety counseling programs, while also participating in a variety of educational and rehabilitative classes, according to Hochul’s office. His clemency application was supported by the prosecutor in the case and the judge who sentenced him.
As G. Dep, Coleman had hits with “Special Delivery” and “Let’s Get It” and helped popularize a loose-limbed dance called the Harlem shake in the early 2000s. The rapper was one of the rising stars of hip-hop impresario Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy Records label in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But his career slumped after his 2001 debut album, Child of the Ghetto, and the rapper became mired in drug use and low-level arrests, his lawyer said in 2011.
Attorney Anthony L. Ricco said at the time that Coleman “had been haunted” by the 1993 fatal shooting of John Henkel and decided to confess to shooting someone as a teenager during a robbery in East Harlem. Henkel was shot three times in the chest outside an apartment complex.
His brother, Robert Henkel, had demanded Hochul reject the urgings by prosecutor David Drucker to release Coleman, calling it a “farce.” He told the New York Post that “it is one thing to seek (clemency) for drug crimes — but not murder.”
A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled against Nirvana and revived a child pornography lawsuit filed by the man who appeared as a nude baby on the cover of the band’s 1991 album Nevermind.
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Spencer Elden, now in his 30s, claimed the photo – one of the most iconic album covers in rock history – violated federal child pornography laws by displaying a sexualized image of a minor. But a lower ruled last year that he had waited far too long to bring his lawsuit.
In a decision overturning that ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that each new republication of the image – including a highly-publicized 30th anniversary re-release in 2021 – could constitute a new “injury” to Elden that would reset the statute of limitations.
“Victims of child pornography may suffer a new injury upon the republication of the pornographic material,” Judge Sandra Segal Ikuta wrote for a three-judge panel. “This conclusion is consistent with the Supreme Court’s view that every viewing of child pornography is a repetition of the victim’s abuse.”
The ruling does not mean that Elden has won the case. The lawsuit will now return to a lower court, where he must actually prove that the image meets the definition of child pornography – something Nirvana vigorously disputes and some legal experts doubt.
In a statement to Billboard, Nirvana’s attorney Bert Deixler called the ruling a “procedural setback” that did not affect their core arguments: “We will defend this meritless case with vigor and expect to prevail.”
An attorney for Elden did not immediately return a request for comment.
Originally released Sept. 24, 1991, Nevermind reached the top spot on the Billboard 200 in January 1992 and ultimately spent 554 weeks on the chart. The album has sold more than 30 million copies and is widely considered one of the most influential in the history of popular music.
The album’s cover — a nude infant swimming in a pool chasing after a dollar attached to a fishhook — was long interpreted as an edgy critique of greed and capitalism. But in his 2021 civil lawsuit, Elden claimed it was something else entirely: the kind of “lascivious” display of a minor’s genitals that’s prohibited under federal child pornography statutes.
“Spencer’s true identity and legal name are forever tied to the commercial sexual exploitation he experienced as a minor which has been distributed and sold worldwide from the time he was a baby to the present day,” he claimed at the time.
In addition to Nirvana’s corporate entity, the lawsuit also named Kurt Cobain’s estate, Universal Music Group, Dave Grohl and a number of other companies and individuals. The lawsuit was a civil action, and no allegations of criminal wrongdoing by anyone have been raised.
Nirvana sharply disputed that the image amounted to child pornography, but argued first that the case should be dismissed for a simpler reason: the statute of limitations. They cited the fact that Elden had seemingly endorsed his role in rock history on a number of occasions, including prior to the cutoff year for the 10-year statute of limitations.
“Long before 2011, as Elden has pled, Elden knew about the photograph, and knew that he (and not someone else) was the baby in the photograph,” the band claimed in its motion to dismiss the case. “He has been fully aware of the facts of both the supposed ‘violation’ and ‘injury’ for decades.”
In a ruling in September 2022, a federal judge agreed with Nirvana’s arguments. He ruled that the 10-year time limit began when a victim “reasonably discovers” either the crime or the injury caused by it – and that under either time limit, Elden had clearly filed his case too late.
But in Thursday’s decision, the Ninth Circuit said the time limits were more like those used in defamation cases and other “dignitary torts,” where a new repetition of the offending publication could give grounds to sue, despite the statute of limitations.
“The online dissemination of child pornography haunts victims long after their original images or videos are created,” the court wrote. “As the Supreme Court has explained, the victim’s knowledge of publication of the visual material increases the emotional and psychic harm suffered by the child.”
The court added later: “If a victim learns a defendant has distributed child pornography and does not sue, but then later learns the defendant has done so again many years later, the statute of limitations … does not prevent the plaintiff from bringing a claim based on that new injury.”
SiriusXM is facing a lawsuit from New York’s attorney general over allegations that the satellite radio and streaming service has made it “extremely difficult” for listeners to cancel their subscriptions.
In a complaint filed Wednesday (Dec. 20) in Manhattan court, Attorney General Letitia James’ office accused SiriusXM of subjecting canceling customers to “a lengthy and burdensome endurance contest,” which allegedly requires phone conversations with a live agent and extended time spent on hold.
“Sirius deliberately wastes its subscribers’ time even though it has the ability to process cancellations with the click of a button,” attorneys from James’ office wrote in the lawsuit. “The only reason Sirius requires cancelling subscribers to interact with a live agent at all is to maximize its opportunity to retain them as subscribers.”
In a statement announcing the lawsuit, James said it followed an investigation that showed SiriusXM was “trapping consumers” with its cancellation process, including by training its employees “not take ‘no’ for an answer.”
“Having to endure a lengthy and frustrating process to cancel a subscription is a stressful burden no one looks forward to, and when companies make it hard to cancel subscriptions, it’s illegal,” James said. “Consumers should be able to cancel a subscription they no longer use or need without any issues, and companies have a legal duty to make their cancellation process easy.”
Following the filing of the lawsuit, a spokeswoman for SiriusXM said the company would “vigorously defend against these baseless allegations,” saying that they “grossly mischaracterize” its practices.
“It’s telling that the New York Attorney General issued a press release before providing SiriusXM with a copy of the complaint,” the company statement said. “Like a number of consumer businesses, we offer a variety of options for customers to sign up for or cancel their SiriusXM subscription.”
According to the new lawsuit, SiriusXM automatically renews subscriptions at the end of a term unless a user calls on the phone to cancel. The lawsuit claims that users are sometimes forced to wait as long as 25 minutes just to connect with an agent, who then subject them to a “six-part script” in which they are trained to repeatedly refuse to actually terminate the subscription.
“Sirius requires its live agents to present a series of renewal offers to retain the consumer as a subscriber,” the AG’s office wrote in the lawsuit. “But when a consumer declines an offer, or refuses to hear further offers, Sirius instructs its agents not to take ‘no’ for an answer.”
By doing so, SiriusSM forces subscribers to “devote inordinate amounts of time, patience, and stamina trying to cancel a subscription they no longer wish to pay for,” the lawsuit says, even though they have a “legal and contractual right to cancel anytime using a process that is simple and efficient.”
This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between.
This week: Luke Combs apologizes after he accidentally sues a fan for $250,000; a Taylor Swift fan drops her lawsuit against Live Nation over the disastrous Eras presale; Lizzo fires back at one of the discrimination cases she’s facing; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Luke Combs Accidentally Sues A Fan
How on earth do you sue someone unintentionally? That’s what the entire music industry was asking last week after Luke Combs said he had been “utterly unaware” that he’d sued a Florida woman and won a $250,000 judgment against her — all over the sale of a few Combs-themed drinking mugs on the internet.
The answer: By adopting the same kind of mass-litigation tactics used by big retail brands to fight fake merchandise on the internet. Suing hundreds of people at once and notifying them by email gives companies — and, increasingly, music artists — a powerful tool to help stem a flood of confusing knockoffs, but some legal experts warn that such litigation can be “abusive.”
For more, go read our full story — on Combs’ apology to the fan, his underlying lawsuit, and the strange world of anti-counterfeiting litigation that it highlighted.
Other top stories this week…
YOUNGBOY HOUSE ARREST – A federal judge refused to alter the conditions of NBA YoungBoy‘s house arrest to let him spend more time in the recording studio creating music while he awaits trial on federal gun charges. The judge was unswayed by arguments from the rapper’s attorneys that his record sales have dropped because he has been unable to travel to the studio to “produce the quality of music that his fans expect.”
MJ ESTATE STRIKES AGAIN – Lawyers for the Michael Jackson estate quietly threatened to sue a pop culture collectibles website last week over plans to auction off unreleased Jackson studio recordings that the estate claimed were “unquestionably stolen,” resulting in the site withdrawing the materials from the sale.
MARILYN MANSON RULING – A California appeals court ruled that Marilyn Manson’s former assistant Ashley Walters could sue him for sexual assault, overturning an earlier decision that said she waited too long to bring her case. The appeals court said she potentially had “trauma-induced memory suppression” that rightfully delayed the filing of her case.
TICKETMASTER CASE SWIFTLY DROPPED – A Taylor Swift fan named Michelle Sterioff agreed to drop her class action against Ticketmaster parent Live Nation — one of two such cases filed in the wake of last year’s disastrous presale of tickets to the Eras Tour.
LIZZO HITS BACK – Lizzo’s attorneys fired back at a harassment and discrimination lawsuit filed by Asha Daniels, a former clothing designer for her tour — arguing that the accuser was nothing more than a “disgruntled” employee who had been fired after she “played hooky” on the day of a concert.
Google has agreed to pay $700 million and make several other concessions to settle allegations that it had been stifling competition against its Android app store — the same issue that went to trial in another case that could result in even bigger changes.
Although Google struck the deal with state attorneys general in September, the settlement’s terms weren’t revealed until late Monday in documents filed in San Francisco federal court. The disclosure came a week after a federal court jury rebuked Google for deploying anticompetitive tactics in its Play Store for Android apps.
The settlement with the states includes $630 million to compensate U.S. consumers funneled into a payment processing system that state attorneys general alleged drove up the prices for digital transactions within apps downloaded from the Play Store. That store caters to the Android software that powers most of the world’s smartphones.
Like Apple does in its iPhone app store, Google collects commissions ranging from 15% to 30% on in-app purchases — fees that state attorneys general contended drove prices higher than they would have been had there been an open market for payment processing. Those commissions generated billions of dollars in profit annually for Google, according to evidence presented in the recent trial focused on its Play Store.
Eligible consumers will receive at least $2, according to the settlement, and may get additional payments based on their spending on the Play store between Aug. 16, 2016 and Sept. 30, 2023. The estimated 102 million U.S. consumers who made in-app purchases during that time frame are supposed to be automatically notified about various options for how they can receive their cut of the money.
Another $70 million of the pre-trial settlement will cover the penalties and other costs that Google is being forced to pay to the states.
Although Google is forking over a sizeable sum, it’s a fraction of the $10.5 billion in damages that the attorneys general estimated the company could be forced to pay if they had taken the case to trial instead of settling.
Google also agreed to make other changes designed to make it even easier for consumers to download and install Android apps from other outlets besides its Play Store for the next five years. It will refrain from issuing as many security warnings, or “scare screens,” when alternative choices are being used.
The makers of Android apps will also gain more flexibility to offer alternative payment choices to consumers instead of having transactions automatically processed through the Play Store and its commission system. Apps will also be able to promote lower prices available to consumers who choose an alternate to the Play Store’s payment processing.
Investors seemed unfazed by the settlement as shares in Google’s corporate parent, Alphabet Inc., rose slightly in Tuesday’s midday trading.
The settlement represents a “loud and clear message to Big Tech — attorneys general across the country are unified, and we are prepared to use the full weight of our collective authority to ensure free and fair access to the digital marketplace,” said Connecticut Attorney General William Tong.
Wilson White, Google’s vice president of government affairs and public policy, framed the deal as a positive for the company, despite the money and concessions it entails. The settlement “builds on Android’s choice and flexibility, maintains strong security protections, and retains Google’s ability to compete with other (software) makers, and invest in the Android ecosystem for users and developers,” White wrote in a blog post.
Although the state attorneys general hailed the settlement as a huge win for consumers, it didn’t go far enough for Epic Games, which spearheaded the attack on Google’s app store practices with an antitrust lawsuit filed in August 2020.
Epic, the maker of the popular Fortnite video game, rebuffed the settlement in September and instead chose to take its case to trial, even though it had already lost on most of its key claims in a similar trial targeting Apple and its iPhone app store in 2021.
The Apple trial, though, was decided by a federal judge instead of the jury that vindicated Epic with a unanimous verdict that Google had built anticompetitive barriers around the Play Store. Google has vowed to appeal the verdict.
Corie Wright, Epic’s vice president of public policy, derided the states’ settlement as little more than a one-time payout that provides “no true relief for consumers or developers,” in a blog post.
In court documents, the attorneys general said they decided to settle because of significant risks posed by a trial, including the possibility that a jury may have thought their plan to seek $10.5 billion in damages was exorbitant. The attorneys general also cited for the potential of jurors becoming confused had their case been presented alongside Epic’s claims in the trial, as had been the original plan.
But now the Epic trial’s outcome nevertheless raises the specter of Google potentially being ordered to pay even more money as punishment for its past practices and making even more dramatic changes to its lucrative Android app ecosystem.
Those changes will be determined next year by U.S. District Judge James Donato, who presided over the Epic Games trial. Donato also still must approve Google’s Play Store settlement with the states.
“In the next phase of the case, Epic will seek meaningful remedies to truly open up the Android ecosystem so consumers and developers will genuinely benefit from the competition that U.S. antitrust laws were designed to promote,” Wright pledged.
Google faces an even bigger legal threat in another antitrust case targeting its dominant search engine that serves as the centerpiece of a digital ad empire that generates more than $200 billion in sales annually. Closing arguments in a trial pitting Google against the Justice Department are scheduled for early May before a federal judge in Washington D.C.
A federal judge is refusing to alter the conditions of NBA YoungBoy‘s house arrest to let him to spend more time in the recording studio creating music, unswayed by arguments from the rapper’s attorneys that his record sales have dropped as a result of his lockdown.
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The rapper, who is currently under house arrest while awaiting trial on federal gun charges, had argued that he needs to be able to travel to the studio to “produce the quality of music that his fans expect” – and that his label had informed him that “sales have suffered” because he had not been able to do so.
But in a ruling Monday, Judge Shelly Dick denied that request. Although she loosened restrictions to allow YoungBoy (Kentrell DeSean Gaulden) more access to mental health treatments, the judge said his request for more studio time could potentially put people in harm’s way, including the rapper himself.
“The conditions imposed on Gaulden’s pretrial release are designed to reasonably assure the safety of both Gaulden and others,” Judge Dick wrote. “Given the vague bounds of the request, and in light of the history of violence aimed at Gaulden and those around him, the court is more troubled by the threat that the proposed modification imposes on Gaulden’s safety.”
Attorneys for YoungBoy did not immediately return a request for comment.
YoungBoy was indicted by Louisiana federal prosecutors in March 2021 on charges of “felon in possession of a firearm,” after he was allegedly found with two guns during a September 2020 incident in Baton Rouge. Possessing guns would be illegal for YoungBoy since the rapper was previously convicted in 2017 of aggravated assault with a firearm.
When YoungBoy was arrested in Los Angeles on those charges, another gun was found in his car, leading to a similar case brought by California federal prosecutors. Following a three-day trial last year, YoungBoy was acquitted on that charge. But he’s still facing a looming trial in Louisiana over the original 2021 indictment.
In October, his attorneys moved to alter the terms of his pre-trial house arrest, citing the “deterioration of Mr. Gaulden’s mental health due to the long period of social isolation.” In addition to asking for more medical treatment, they warned that his career was in “jeopardy” due to his “seclusion from the fans that consume his music.” They said that “analysis” by his label (Atlantic Records) indicated that “sales have suffered due to his limited ability to produce quality recordings.”
“Music and entertainment is Mr. Gaulden’s only way of earning a living and supporting his family,” the star’s attorneys said. “Mr. Gaulden has exhausted all his options for recording in his home with a very limited production crew.”
They told the judge that YoungBoy “needs to be able to travel to and from recording studios on occasion in order to continue to produce the quality of music that his fans expect.” They also asked for the ability to “film studio music videos to promote his music.”
“No professional recording artist can survive and maintain a career without studio quality audio & video production,” YoungBoy’s lawyers wrote.
But in a response last month, federal prosecutors argued strongly against any such changes. They called the request “hopelessly vague” and warned that it “generates more questions than answers.”
“Where are the studios? Who is allowed there? Will individuals that are not allowed at his home be present at the studios? How many people will be at the studios?” prosecutors wrote in their filing. “Will the defendant’s ‘employment related’ studio activity be subject to the same time restrictions applicable to his home incarceration?
Notably, prosecutors pointed to previous statements from Atlantic Records CEO Julie Greenwald to support their point. During a hearing in 2021 over whether YoungBoy would be granted pre-trial release, Greenwald testified in court that the label would re-create a recording studio in his home to ensure that he was able to stay under house arrest rather than need to be held in jail.
“We would build a studio in the house that he would be staying to make sure he abides by the rules that he has to,” Greenwald said at the time, according to court transcripts. She said they would be “basically bringing his work environment to him” and that they “can get good recordings” from such a set up.
In their motions last month, prosecutors cited Greenwald’s testimony to undercut YoungBoy’s claims that he needed to travel to the recording studio to maintain his career.
“Given that the defendant’s work environment may be brought to him, there simply is no need for travel and participation in other undefined ‘employment related activity,’” prosecutors wrote.
Although Monday’s order denied YoungBoy’s request to change the rules themselves, the judge said he could “continue to seek Court-approval” for travel to a studio or other music-related requests on a case-by-case basis. And she granted his request for more flexibility to “attend medical appointments,” saying he could do so if they were “specifically approved in advance” by federal authorities.
YoungBoy’s trial is currently set to kick off in July 2024.
– Megan Thee Stallion agreed in October to settle a long-running legal battle against her former record label record label, 1501 Certified Entertainment. The deal came after more than three years of bitter litigation stemming from her accusation that 1501 duped the young artist into signing an unfair record deal in 2018 that was well below industry standards. That cleared the way for her to sign a distribution deal with Warner Music in December.
– Kesha and Dr. Luke reached a settlement in June to end a decade-long lawsuit accusing the pop star of defaming him in 2014 when she accused him of raping her in 2005. The agreement came on the eve of trial — and just a week after a New York court issued a key ruling that would have made it harder for Dr. Luke to win the case.
– DJ Envy, the host of the popular Breakfast Club hip-hop radio show, was sued over the summer by dozens of investors who claimed he was complicit in an alleged multi-million-dollar real estate investment scam in New Jersey perpetrated by celebrity real estate guru Cesar Pina. Envy denied the allegations and said he too was a victim of the fraud. But when federal prosecutors indicted Pina in October for running a “Ponzi-like investment fraud scheme,” they specifically noted that Pina had “partnered with a celebrity disc jockey and radio personality” to boost his reputation.
– New state laws restricting drag performances were struck down as unconstitutional, first in Tennessee, then in Florida, and finally in Texas, each time on the grounds that they likely violate freedom of speech. Such statutes are nominally aimed at protecting children from obscenity, but critics say existing laws already do that and that the new legislation is instead a thinly veiled attack on the LGBTQ community. The new laws have been closely watched by the music industry over concerns that aspects of concerts could run afoul of broad new restrictions.
– Tory Lanez was sentenced to 10 years in prison in August for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot during an argument, capping off three years of legal drama over the violent 2020 incident. The sentence came after Lanez was convicted on three felony counts at trial, a verdict that the singer is currently appealing.
– The two key remaining members of Journey — lead guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain — battled in court over back-and-forth accusations related to band finances and a corporate American Express card. The lawsuit was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Journey’s internal dysfunction and legal issues, as detailed by Billboard’s Steve Knopper.
– A private feud between longtime members of the legendary rock band Mötley Crüe burst into public view in April when co-founder Mick Mars filed a lawsuit accusing his former “brothers” of tossing him to the curb after he said he could no longer tour due to a “tragic” disability called ankylosing spondylitis. The rest of Crüe, on the other hand, says they offered Mars “generous compensation” as a courtesy, but that he instead chose to file an “ugly public lawsuit.”
Lawyers for the Michael Jackson estate quietly threatened to sue a pop culture collectibles website this week over plans to auction off unreleased Jackson studio recordings that the estate claimed were “unquestionably stolen,” resulting in the items being withdrawn from sale.
Last month, Gotta Have Rock and Roll said it planned to auction more than two dozen masters tapes purportedly recorded by Jackson during 1994 sessions at The Hit Factory, a famed New York City studio. The auction house called the tapes “incredibly rare unreleased recordings” and said each would eventually sell for as much as $4000.
But after correspondence from attorneys for the Jackson estate that was obtained by Billboard, including an email from well-known litigator Alex Spiro earlier this week that threatened to seek an immediate court restraining order, the tapes are no longer listed on the auction site.
GHRR did not return a request for comment on the status of the tapes. A rep for the Jackson estate declined to comment.
The incident highlights the sometimes blurry line between legitimate rock and roll collectibles and goods that have been stolen from artists. Last year, three men were indicted in New York for attempting to auction Don Henley’s handwritten notes and lyrics for the Eagles album Hotel California; they claim they lawfully obtained the materials from a journalist who was simply given them.
The Jackson tapes, posted for sale as part of GHRR”s “Rock & Roll Pop Culture Winter Auction 2023,” cover 25 recordings that purportedly include “Oh Love,” “Sexy Love,” “Doing What My Heart,” “New Jelly” and many others. The site estimated that each tape, which it said was “an artifact ONLY with no copyright” with reproduction “STRICTLY prohibited,” would sell for between $2,000 and $4,000.
But in a letter dated Nov. 29, Jackson estate attorney Jonathan Steinsapir warned that the tapes had been stolen. He demanded that Gotta Have Rock and Roll not only “cease and desist from any and all efforts to further auction these tape,” but also immediately return them.
“Neither Michael Jackson nor his record company, Sony Music Entertainment, ever sold or gave away master tapes from his recording sessions at The Hit Factory (or anywhere else),” Steinsapir wrote in the letter, obtained by Billboard. “These tapes were unquestionably stolen or otherwise taken without authorization. Accordingly, they are the property of the Jackson Estate.”
The letter was apparently unsuccessful.
On Tuesday, the estate contacted the Gotta Have Rock and Roll again, this time represented by Alex Spiro, a nationally prominent attorney who has previously represented Jay-Z, Megan Thee Stallion and Elon Musk in court. In an email to the auction house’s lawyer, Spiro noted that Gotta Have Rock and Roll had informed Steinsapir that it “will not comply with these demands.”
“We write to notify you that we intend to seek a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction tomorrow (December 13) in New York Supreme Court,” Spiro wrote. “Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions.”
Less than two hours later on Tuesday, the company’s attorney responded to Spiro with an email: “There is no contact information on your email. What is the best phone number to reach you?”
By Wednesday, the tapes had been removed from Gotta Have Rock and Roll’s site. The auction site still lists numerous Jackson items as part of the sale, including a “Michael Jackson Circa 1984 Owned & Worn Red Military Style Jacket” that they estimate will sell for more than $10,000. But the tapes, and the specific lot numbers they occupied, are no longer visible.
The auction house did not respond to specific questions from Billboard, including how the auction house came into possession of the tapes, and whether they had been returned to the estate.
It’s not the first time the Jackson estate has sued over materials allegedly stolen from the late star. In 2022, the estate sued Jeffré Phillips, who was once engaged to Michael’s sister La Toya Jackson, over allegations that he stole various materials from the singer’s Carolwood estate in the wake of his death. In October, the estate said that case had been “amicably resolved” after Phillips “voluntarily returned Michael Jackson’s property to the Estate.”
A California appeals court ruled Wednesday (Dec. 13) that Marilyn Manson’s former assistant can sue him for sexual assault, overturning an earlier decision that said she waited too long to bring her case.
In a 24-page opinion, California’s Second Appellate District revived a lawsuit filed by Ashley Walters that claims Manson subjected her to brutal treatment, including sexual harassment and discrimination, during the year that she worked for him from 2010 to 2011.
A lower court had ruled last year that Walters’ lawsuit, filed in 2021, was barred by the statute of limitations, which requires such cases to be filed within two years. But on Wednesday, the appeals court said Walters’ case was fair game under the so-called delayed discovery rule, as she claims the trauma of the incidents caused her to suppress the memories until 2020.
“Until she received diagnosis and treatment, Walters [says she] was unable to remember the repressed events, and once she did recall them, she was unable to immediately identify these events as abuse,” the court wrote. “These allegations of suppressed memories and psychological blocking are sufficient to withstand [dismissal].”
A representative for Manson declined to comment on the ruling. An attorney for Walters did not immediately return a request for comment.
Walters was one of several women who accused Manson of sexual abuse in 2021. His former fiancé Evan Rachel Wood accused him of grooming and sexual abuse on Twitter in February 2021, and then others, including Game of Thrones actress Esmé Bianco and model Ashley Morgan Smithine, filed lawsuits against him.
Manson has denied all of the accusations, and several of the cases have been dismissed or settled. Manson later sued Wood for defamation, claiming she had “secretly recruited, coordinated, and pressured” other women to make such allegations, though that case was largely dismissed earlier this year.
In her lawsuit, Walters claimed that Manson subjected her to “sexual exploitation, manipulation and psychological abuse” while she worked for him as a personal assistant. The alleged abuse included whipping her and throwing her against a wall in a “a drug-induced rage”; forcing her to stay awake for 48 hours by feeding her cocaine; and having “offered” her sexually to friends and associates.
In June 2022, the case was dismissed for being filed past the statute of limitations. Walters argued then that she had suppressed the memories of Manson’s abuse until other women began coming forward, but the judge said during a hearing that he had not seen “sufficient facts” to invoke the delayed-discovery rule.
In Wednesday’s ruling overturning that decision, the appeals court did not say that Walters’ accusations against Manson were true. Instead, it merely said that her allegations were enough for the case to survive being dismissed at the outset. The court recounted various claims that, if proven true, would mean that Walters had truly not discovered the abuse until 2020.
“The complaint described the support group Walters joined in October 2020 and recounted the stories shared by the other abused women that ‘began to unlock new memories [Walters] repressed long ago as a result of her psychological trauma by being manipulated and threatened by Warner during and after her employment,’” the court wrote. “The complaint also described how Walters began therapy in November 2020 and was diagnosed the following month with complex posttraumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder.”
The ruling sends the case back to the trial court, where the parties will engage in more litigation, conduct discovery and move toward an eventual trial.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence and need support and/or resources, reach out to RAINN and the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800-656-HOPE) for free, confidential help 24/7.
Luke Combs apologized Wednesday after he accidentally sued one of his fans in federal court and won a $250,000 judgment against her, saying she had been caught up in a lawsuit aimed at “illegal businesses” and that she was “never supposed to be involved.”
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The apology came a day after news broke that lawyers representing the country star had sued a woman named Nicol Harness for selling Combs-themed mugs on Amazon. Harness, who suffers from congestive heart failure, sold only 18 tumblers for a total of $380 but was ordered to pay a whopping $250,000 in damages for infringing Combs’ intellectual property — all before she ever realized she had been sued.
In an Instagram post on Wednesday, Combs said he had just learned about the situation and that it “makes me absolutely sick to my stomach.” He said he had already contacted Harness directly and apologized for the incident.
“I spent the last two hours trying to make this right and figure out what’s going on, because I was completely and utterly unaware of this,” Combs said in the video. “We do have a company that goes after folks only, supposedly large corporations operating internationally that make millions and millions of dollars making counterfeit tee shirts, things of that nature, running illegal businesses. Apparently, this woman, Nicol, has somehow gotten wrapped into that.”
The lawsuit against Harness, filed in June in Illinois federal court, accused more than 200 online entities of selling unauthorized Combs merchandise on the internet. It included screenshots of unauthorized t-shirts sold on Amazon that directly copied real apparel the country star sold on his own site.
“This action has been filed … to combat online counterfeiters who trade upon the reputation and goodwill of the American artist Luke Combs,” his lawyers wrote. “The aggregated effect of the mass counterfeiting that is taking place has overwhelmed the plaintiff and his ability to police his rights against the hundreds of anonymous defendants which are selling illegal counterfeits at prices.”
The case highlights a common legal tactic used by big brands like Nike and Ray-Ban to fight fake products on the internet. Filed against huge lists of URLs, such actions enable brands to shut down pirate sellers en masse, win court orders to freeze their assets, and continue to kill new listings if they pop up. They usually result in large “default judgments” against many defendants who never even saw the lawsuit, ordering them to pay large sums in damages.
Though they’re more often employed by retail brands, artists and bands have increasingly turned to such lawsuits to combat counterfeit merch. Nirvana sued nearly 200 sites for selling fake gear in early 2022; a few months later, the late rapper XXXTentacion’s company filed a similar case; in January, Harry Styles filed one.
Such lawsuits are effective at combating a difficult problem, but they’re also increasingly controversial. In a study released last month, professor Eric Goldman of Santa Clara University’s School of Law called the mass-defendant counterfeiting cases “abusive,” saying they allow rightsholders to bypass “basic procedural safeguards” like making sure each defendant is properly served with notice of the lawsuit.
Harness says that’s what happened to her. As reported by Tampa’s local NBC outlet WFLA, she says she had no idea she had been sued until she returned from a hospital visit and saw her Amazon account had been frozen. Harness says she later found an email from Combs’ lawyers, sent to an address she rarely uses and stuck in her spam folder, notifying her of the lawsuit. By the time she was fully up to speed, she says the case had been closed and a judge had granted a default judgment ordering her to pay Combs $250,000.
Though the lawsuit was filed directly in his name, Combs’ Instagram post on Wednesday suggests that it was handled entirely by outside attorneys or other entities empowered to enforce his rights. The attorney who filed the case, Keith A. Vogt, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Combs’ manager Chris Kappy declined to comment on how the case came to be filed, but confirmed that Combs had absolved Harness of any legal debt. And in his Instagram post on Wednesday, Combs said he was committed to making things right.
Since a total of $5,500 was still frozen in her Amazon account, he said he was “going to double that, send her $11,000 today, just so she doesn’t have anything to worry about.” Combs also said that he was going to make his own tumblers to sell in his official online merchandise store and that money from sales of those tumblers will also go to Harness to help with her medical bills.
“This is not something I would ever do,” Combs said. “This is not the kind of person I am, greedy in any way, shape or form. Money is the last thing on my mind, I promise you guys that. I invited Nicol and her family out to a show this year so I can give her a hug and say sorry in person.”