Legal
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Gloria Trevi is denying allegations in a newly filed sexual lawsuit that claim she and her former producer Sergio Andrade “groomed” and “exploited” two underage girls in the 1990s.
“My words are directed to everyone who may have seen recent allegations about me but do not know the background and my story,” the Mexican pop star began in a statement published on her social media accounts Jan. 6. “Being a victim of physical and sexual abuse is one of the worst things that can happen to a human being. I say it, and I know it, because I am a survivor. And, my thoughts go out to anyone who, like me, has ever been the victim of any kind of abuse.
“But I will not remain silent while I am unfairly accused of crimes I did not commit. These false accusations, which were first made against me 25 years ago, have been tried in various courts and, in all instances, I have been completely and totally acquitted,” she continued. “For these old, disproven claims to resurface now is tremendously painful for me and for all my family. The accusations were false when they were made and remain false today.”
The new civil complaint was filed Dec. 30 in Los Angeles County. In the suit, which was obtained by Billboard, two Jane Does allege that the Mexican pop star along with Andrade “groomed” and “exploited” them when they were 13 and 15 years old. The 30-page lawsuit — which does not specifically name Trevi or Andrade, though the timeline and album details mentioned make clear they are the defendants — also includes allegations of childhood sexual abuse and harassment and/or assault.
In the ’90s, Trevi was one of the biggest Latin pop stars in the world, but her successful career came to a halt in 1999 when criminal complaints were filed against her and Andrade. The complaints accused them of corrupting minors, kidnapping and rape. Trevi fled to Brazil, where she was captured and arrested, and the singer was held behind bars for nearly five years. In 2004, a Mexican court acquitted the pop star and found her not guilty on the charges of rape, kidnapping and corruption of minors.
She has maintained her innocence since, which she addressed in her Jan. 6 statement. “A trial court carefully examined all the evidence during a judicial process which lasted almost 5 years, and they ruled in my favor,” Trevi wrote. “The verdict was upheld on appeal. That is why I filed a lawsuit in the United States to expose and hold all those who are trying to defame me accountable.”
The singer concluded: “I will continue to move forward and work to get justice in this case — and I will do so knowing that the truth is on my side.”
Trevi previously discussed the impact the 1999 allegations had on her livelihood in a September 2022 interview with Billboard. “I felt that I lost my career,”she said at the time. “But I kept a positive attitude and believed in myself. You can lose a battle but not the war, and that mindset was very constant in me.”
The same year she released from prison, Trevi put out Cómo Nace el Universo, which was written while she was incarcerated, and addressed her time behind bars. The album peaked No. 2 on the Latin Pop Albums chart and No. 4 on Top Latin Albums.
Read Trevi’s full statement — which she shared in both Spanish and English — below.
Don Henley, Sheryl Crow, Sting and a slew of other musicians are throwing their support behind a new federal copyright rule aimed at making sure that songwriters who regain control of their music actually start getting paid their streaming royalties after they do so.
As first reported by Billboard in October, the U.S. Copyright Office wants to overturn a policy adopted by the Mechanical Licensing Collective (which collects streaming royalties) that critics fear might lead to a bizarre outcome: Even after a writer uses their so-called termination right to take back control of their songs, royalties may continue to flow in perpetuity to the old publishers that no longer own them.
In a letter Thursday organized by the Music Artists Coalition, more than 350 artists, songwriters, managers and music lawyers urged the Copyright Office to grant final approval for the proposed rule, warning that “music creators must not be deprived of the rights afforded to them by copyright law.”
“We stand together in support of USCO’s rule and believe that anything contrary would undermine the clear Congressional intent to allow songwriters, after an extended period of time, to reap the benefit of the songs they create,” the signatories wrote to the Copyright Office.
“It is simple, a songwriter who validly terminates a prior grant is the correct recipient of royalties,” the group wrote. “A publisher whose grant was terminated – and has received the benefit of the songwriter’s work for decades – is not the proper or intended recipient of these royalties.”
To fully understand the legal complexities of the Copyright Office’s proposed rule and what it might mean for songwriters, read this explainer.
Thursday’s letter, also signed by Bob Seger, Maren Morris, John Mayer, Dave Matthews, members of the Black Keys and others, came on the final day of the so-called “comment period,” in which outside groups could submit their opinion on the Copyright Office’s proposed rule.
The letter was the product of a call for signatures by the Irving Azoff-led Music Artists Coalition, which, along with other groups like Songwriters of North America, the Black Music Action Coalition and the Nashville Songwriters Association International, helped raise the alarm about the issue and spurred the Copyright Office to take action last year.
“Too often, music artists are quietly stripped of their rights,” Azoff said in a statement to Billboard announcing the letter. “But, today, the industry stood up to say ‘Not on our watch!’ We applaud the Copyright Office for its proposed rule. This rule should pass unamended and without delay.”
The Copyright Office introduced its new rule in October, saying the MLC’s policy had been based on an “erroneous” understanding of the law that created ambiguity about who should be receiving streaming royalties after a songwriter invokes their termination right and regains ownership of their music. Ordering MLC to “immediately repeal its policy in full,” the new proposal would make clear that when a songwriter takes back their music, they should obviously start getting the royalties, too.
In a message to members ahead of Thursday’s letter, MAC offered a plain-English explainer of the complex legal mechanics at play in the situation. The group urged its members to help end what it believed amounted to a loophole in the system created by 2018’s Music Modernization Act, warning that it could defeat the very purpose of both the new law and termination.
In an interview with Billboard, Susan Genco, co-president of The Azoff Company and a leader at MAC, said the group’s call to action – and the letter that came from it — was an example of how songwriters have become better mobilized after years of being “kept in the dark” on complicated policy matters that could have adverse effects.
“This is a big part of our role, to figure out which issues impact music creators the most, prioritize them, and then explain them to the community,” Genco said.
“We tried to paint a very clear picture for them,” added Jordan Bromley, a prominent music attorney and another key member of MAC, in the same interview. “Oh you think you’re getting your streaming mechanicals back through termination? Think again.”
In addition to advocating for the new rule, Thursday’s letter also came with something of a warning. The final sentence, separated into its own paragraph, read: “Any view opposing the USCO’s rule is a vote against songwriters.”
While not outright oppositional, the Copyright Office has received pushback on the proposed changes from the National Music Publishers’ Association. In a Dec. 1 submission, the group said it supported the overall goal of the new rule, but warned that the agency’s proposed approach “may have far-reaching and unintended consequences” and would likely lead to litigation in other spheres. Among other issues, the group said the rule must not apply retroactively.
“The breadth of the USCO’s legal reasoning in the [proposed rule] seems likely to increase legal uncertainty and questions,” the NMPA wrote. “This uncertainty will almost definitely raise the likelihood of litigation … including litigation concerning past payments made in accordance with what was then industry custom and practice.”
The NMPA instead advocated for “a consensus-based legislative solution” that would be passed by Congress, which it said could be narrower and more “carefully crafted” to avoid the problems the group has with the Copyright Office’s legal analysis.
In a statement to Billboard, NMPA president David Israelite stressed the industry group was aligned with songwriters on the ultimate policy goal.
“We strongly support songwriters receiving all mechanical royalties after a termination and have been working towards crafting legislation to ensure that outcome for years alongside the major songwriter groups,” Israelite said. “While not a concrete legislative remedy, our comments reflect our support for the Copyright Office’s proposed rule and offer ways to make that rule even more robust and less susceptible to legal challenges.”
The text of the Copyright Office’s proposed rule is available in its entirety on the agency’s website. The public comment period ended on Thursday, but all submitted comments will be made public on a public docket. The agency will review all comments and issue a final rule in the months ahead.
Read the entire letter sent to the Copyright Office on Thursday here:
The man accused of murdering Migos rapper Takeoff was released from a Houston jail late Wednesday (Jan. 4) after posting a $1 million bond, court records show.
According to filings in Harris County court and from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office obtained by Billboard, Patrick Xavier Clark posted bond on Wednesday and was released at 8:47 p.m. local time. He’s due back in court for a hearing on March 9.
Bond had initially been set at $2 million, but Clark’s lawyers argued that that figure was excessive and potentially unconstitutional — essentially a backdoor to simply denying bond altogether. After they demanded the figure be lowered to $100,000, the judge agreed to reduce it to $1 million on Dec. 14.
Court records show Clark will still be under 24/7 hour arrest, cannot have any contact with anyone involved, and will be required to wear a GPS monitor that can immediately notify prosecutors and defense attorneys of any violations. He must also submit to drug testing and cannot drink alcohol, as court records indicate that “alcohol was a factor in the offense.”
A representative for the late star did not immediately return a request for comment on Clark’s release. Clark’s lawyer also did not respond to a request for comment.
Takeoff (born Kirshnik Khari Ball), 28, was shot and killed Nov. 1 during a private party he attended at 810 Billiards & Bowling in downtown Houston with his uncle and bandmate, Quavo. The musician was killed by “penetrating gunshot wounds of head and torso into arm,” according to a report from the Harris County coroner’s office. Clark, 33, was arrested on the east side of Houston on Nov. 1 and charged with murder; another man, 22-year-old Cameron Joshua, was arrested and charged with the unlawful carrying of a weapon.
Sony Music has reached a settlement to end a lawsuit that claimed the name of Future’s chart-topping album High Off Life infringed the trademark rights of a creative agency that uses that exact same name.
High Off Life LLC sued Sony in 2020, alleging the label had “destroyed” the smaller company’s brand by using the name for the title of Future’s eight studio album. Though Sony argued an album name was protected by the First Amendment, a federal judge refused to dismiss the case last year.
But in a motion filed Tuesday, both sides agreed to end the case. The terms of the settlement, like whether any money exchanged hands or any names would be changed, were not publicly disclosed. Attorneys for both sides did not return requests for comment.
High Off Life reached the top spot on the Billboard 200 in May 2020. It was originally set to be titled “Life Is Good” – the name of the album’s third single – but the name was switched at the last minute as the COVID-19 pandemic swept made life somewhat less than good.
That was a problem for High Off Life LLC, which filed a trademark infringement lawsuit in October 2020 against Sony and Future’s Freebandz Productions. The company claimed it had been selling “High Off Life” apparel since 2009, had launched a creative agency under the name in 2017, and operates a hip-hop YouTube channel called “High Off Life TV.”
The case claimed that Sony’s promotion of Future’s album had buried the smaller company in search results: “Overnight, Defendants destroyed HOL’s investment of many years and many thousands of dollars into building consumer recognition.”
To beat the lawsuit, Sony and Freebandz cited something called the Rogers test — a legal doctrine that makes it very difficult to win lawsuits over the use of brand names in “expressive works” music. The rule says that authors have a First Amendment right to use trademarks in their work unless it explicitly misleads consumers, or is completely irrelevant to the artwork.
That argument might have prevailed eventually, but U.S. District Judge Scott Hardy ruled in April that it was too early to make that call. The decision allowed the case to proceed into discovery, where both sides to gather evidence and build their cases.
A federal judge has tossed out a sexual abuse lawsuit filed against Marilyn Manson by model Ashley Morgan Smithline, citing the fact that she failed to retain a new lawyer after splitting with her old legal team last fall.
Smithline’s lawsuit, one of many claims of sexual abuse filed against Manson (real name Brian Warner) over the past two years, alleged that the rocker raped and abused her multiple times between 2010 and 2013. But in an order issued Tuesday (Jan. 3), Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha dismissed the case.
The reason? After Smithline split with her attorney Jay D. Ellwanger in October, the judge gave her until Dec. 5 to find a new lawyer — or to explain how she’d handle the case on her own as a so-called pro se litigant. She never did either, leading to Tuesday’s decision.
“Plaintiff has not filed a response as of the date of this order,” the judge wrote. “The court, therefore, dismisses this action … for plaintiffs failure to prosecute the action.”
The case was dismissed “without prejudice” — meaning Smithline could still refile the same claims at some point in the future. She could not immediately be located for comment; Ellwanger did not return a request for comment.
In a statement to Billboard, Manson’s attorney Howard King praised the outcome: “We thank and commend Ashley Smithline for dismissing her claims against Brian Warner without seeking or receiving anything in return. Ms. Smithline has refused to be manipulated by others who are trying to pursue their own agendas against Mr. Warner. We wish her well and will continue to work to assure that a significant price will be paid by those who have tried to abuse our legal system.”
Manson has faced multiple accusations of wrongdoing over the past two years.
Evan Rachel Wood, who began publicly dating Manson in 2007 when she was 19 and he was 39, accused him in a February 2021 Instagram post of “grooming me when I was a teenager” before he “horrifically abused me for years.” Those allegations were followed by separate lawsuits from Smithline, former assistant Ashley Walters, Game of Thrones actress Esme Bianco and a Jane Doe accuser.
In her lawsuit, Smithline made graphic and disturbing allegations of sexual assault against Manson. She alleged that she and Manson began a consensual relationship in 2010, but that it “quickly became apparent that consensual sex was not enough for Mr. Warner.”
“Ms. Smithline awoke from unconsciousness with her ankles and wrists tied together behind her back and Mr. Warner sexually penetrating her,” Smithline’s lawyers wrote in the lawsuit. “Ms. Smithline told Mr. Warner to stop and said no multiple times, and Mr. Warner told her to ‘shut the fuck up’ and ‘be quiet.’”
Manson has denied all of the allegations against him and even filed his own defamation lawsuit accusing Wood and another woman of orchestrating the many legal attacks against him. In the March 2022 complaint, he said Wood’s own “malicious falsehood” was part of an “organized attack” aimed at derailing his career, in which she had “secretly recruited, coordinated, and pressured prospective accusers to emerge simultaneously.” Wood denies those allegations.
Mexican pop star Gloria Trevi is facing a new lawsuit over a decades-old claim of sexual assault against two minors.
In a civil complaint filed in Los Angeles on Friday (Dec. 30), two Jane Does allege the singer-songwriter and her ex-producer, Sergio Andrade, “groomed” and “exploited” them when they were between the ages of 13 and 15 back in the early 1990s.
The lawsuit, independently obtained by Billboard and first reported on Wednesday by Rolling Stone, does not specifically name Trevi or Andrade — listing them only as anonymous Doe defendants — but based on the timeline of events and the details of the albums included in the suit, it’s clear that Trevi and Andrade are the defendants.
According to the plaintiffs, Trevi and Andrade used their “role, status, and power as a well-known and successful Mexican pop star and a famous producer” to coerce sexual contact with them over a course of years, much of it occurring in California. As a result of the sexual harassment, abuse and assault, the Plaintiffs have “suffered severe emotional, physical and psychological distress, including humiliation, shame, and guilt.”
The 30-page lawsuit, which includes claims of childhood sexual abuse, harassment and/or assault, was filed just days before the expiration of California’s Child Victims Act, which temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for sexual abuse lawsuits. After a three-year window of availability, the deadline to file such long-delayed lawsuits was Dec. 31, 2022.
The new allegations against the “Todos Me Miran” singer come nearly 20 years after she was acquitted by a judge and found not guilty on charges of rape, kidnapping and corruption of minors. This resulted in the immediate release of Trevi, who was being held at a prison in Chihuahua, Mexico and faced up to 25 years behind bars.
The previous trial occurred after Trevi, Andrade and backup singer María Raquenel Portillo, also known as Mary Boquitas, were arrested in January 2000 in Rio de Janeiro for allegedly luring young girls into a cult-like pornographic ring. Former vocalist Karina Yapor, who filed criminal charges against the so-called Trevi clan, alleged that backup recruits wanting to join the band were forced to have sexual relations with Andrade.
A representative for Trevi declined a request for comment.
Read the entire lawsuit here:
The final two installments of Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly docuseries series ended with a pair of bombshell revelations about the imprisoned singer’s controversial marriage to a then-underage Aaliyah. The two episodes that debuted on Monday and Tuesday, focused in on Kelly’s 2022 federal trial, which included allegations that the singer and his team allegedly forced Aaliyah’s family to sign a non-disclosure agreement in the wake of the annulment of the performers’ brief marriage.
Kelly and Aaliyah were married in secret in August 1994 when the “Rock the Boat” singer was just 15, even though their marriage certificate listed her age as 18; the marriage was reportedly annulled by Aaliyah’s parents in Feb. 1995. Interviews with some of Kelly’s and Aaliyah’s entourages revealed some of the details of the NDA, which reportedly came after Aaliyah’s father was incensed by the marriage.
Longtime friend and former bodyguard Gem Pratt told the Surviving team that Aaliyah’s family signed a contract with Kelly that promised they would not press charges against him for the illegal marriage after the annulment if Kelly promised to sell them the rights to his first three albums. During last year’s federal trial a jury found Kelly guilty on three counts of child pornography and three counts of enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity; Aaliyah was referred to as Jane Doe #1 at that trial.
“Her dad [Michael Haughton] didn’t want her anywhere near him,” Pratt said in the series about wanting to put distance between Kelly, who was 27 at at the time of the marriage, and Aaliyah, whose debut album, Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number — released when she was 14 — was produced and mostly written by Kelly. The stories of Kelly and Aaliyah’s secret marriage were rumored at the time, but the final episodes of the Lifetimes series put the details of the aftermath into sharper focus.
They include allegations about members of Kelly’s inner circle allegedly looking the other way at Kelly’s abuse of women girls and young men over decades, with Pratt saying that “He [Kelly] couldn’t do this by himself… it’s clear as day there were enablers.” Variety noted that the Aaliyah NDA came up during Kelly’s 2022 New York trial, though it did not receive widespread media coverage at the time; Chicago reporter Jim DeRogatis originally broke the news of the NDA, telling the New York Times Popcast podcast in 2018 that the agreement was a “harrowing document… A non-disclosure agreement on both her part and Kelly’s, vowing not to pursue further legal claims for physical abuse. So, it wasn’t just an underage sexual relationship, he hit her, allegedly, according to that court document.”
A lawyer for Kelly had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment about the NDA at press time and Kelly has maintained his innocence and is appealing the convictions.
In Sept. 2021, Kelly was found guilty in a New York trial of nine counts, including racketeering and 14 underlying acts including sexual exploitation of a child, kidnapping, bribery and sex trafficking charges, as well as eight counts of violating the sex trafficking law known as the Mann Act. In June 2022, Kelly, 55, was sentenced to 30 years in prison; the singer is still facing additional sentencing in Chicago as well as pending felony sex crime charges in Minnesota.
The final chapters of producer/director Dream Hampton’s Surviving series also included new allegations of Kelly’s sexual abuse from a survivor named Ebonié Doyle, who claimed she was raped by Kelly just days after his marriage to Aaliyah. Doyle said she was 16 when Kelly’s limo pulled up on her after one of his shows, setting off a relationship that resulted in her mother kicking Doyle out of the house when she discovered it.
After moving in with Kelly, Doyle said she became subject to Kelly’s “controlling” ways, which included forcing her to sit in a specific sexual position for hours until her posture was to his liking. At the time there were whispers about the singer’s relationship with the underage Aaliyah — Doyle noticed she and the singer were similar in stature and appearance — and said at one point she found a sex tape featuring Kelly and Aaliyah. When Kelly found out that she’d seen the tape, Doyle said he pushed her down a flight of stairs.
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: A special New Year’s newsletter, looking back at the biggest legal stories from 2022, the top stories from over the holidays, and what to watch in 2023.A quick programming note: Starting immediately, the email version of the Legal Beat newsletter is now free. All current readers will continue to get the newsletter directly into their inbox every Tuesday, but now anyone else can also sign up HERE to receive a weekly recap of every big story from the world of music law.
Year In Review: 2022’s Top Legal Stories
Some of the most important music industry stories of 2022 were legal stories, so we put together a handy year-end guideto catch you up on all the big developments.As always, copyright cases dominated the list. Taylor Swift finally escaped a case over “Shake It Off,” Ed Sheeran won a big trial over “Shape of You (but faces another one soon over “Thinking Out Loud”) and Katy Perry made important case law when she defeated a case over “Dark Horse.”Cardi B had a big year all by herself. She won a $4 million defamation verdict against a bomb-throwing YouTuber, then beat back a multimillion lawsuit claiming she Photoshopped a random guy onto the “raunchy” cover of a mixtape. Oh, and she also resolved a long-standing criminal case in New York by taking a misdemeanor plea deal.But arguably the most important story of the year was the use of rap lyrics in criminal trials.Billboard did a deep-dive in March, detailing how the practice had persisted for years despite longstanding criticism that it unfairly sways juries and threatens artistic expression — and that was before we knew what the year had in store. In May, hip-hop superstars Young Thug and Gunna were hit with a sweeping indictment that quoted heavily from their lyrics and then left to sit in jail for months, bringing unprecedented new attention to the issue. Atlanta prosecutors offered no apologies for the music-heavy charges, but in September, lawmakers in California enacted landmark legislation that would sharply restrict the practice in that state, creating a blueprint that other jurisdictions might follow.
Top stories to watch in 2023…
RAP ON TRIAL – A big issue from 2022 figures to take center stage again in 2023. Jury selection in the case against Young Thug and other YSL members (though not Gunna, who pleaded out in December) will kick off next week in Atlanta, setting the stage for a blockbuster trial that could last many months. And after coming up just short in 2022, lawmakers in New York will again try to pass legislation that could limit how prosecutors in that state use rap music to win convictions.COPYRIGHT CONTINUUM – After a year full of big copyright cases, 2023 could be even more jam-packed. Dua Lipa will try to evade two separate infringement lawsuits over her smash hit “Levitating,” while Ed Sheeran will face a jury trial over whether his “Thinking Out Loud” infringed Marvin Gaye‘s iconic “Let’s Get It On.” And don’t forget the big class actions against the labels over termination rights, the looming Supreme Court ruling over Andy Warhol’s image of Prince or the upcoming trial in a case against Post Malone.DR. LUKE V. KESHA – After nearly nine years of litigation, a trial is finally set for July in Dr. Luke’s defamation lawsuit against Kesha over her bombshell rape accusations against the producer. A trial had previously been scheduled to start in February, but it cannot take place until New York’s highest court decides two pending appeals dealing with big issues — big for both the case and for media law generally.
What you missed over the holiday week…
CARDI WINS AGAIN – A federal judge refused to overturn Cardi B’s courtroom victory in a lawsuit filed by Kevin Brophy, a man who was unwittingly Photoshopped to look like he was performing oral sex on the superstar on the cover of her debut mixtape. Two months after jurors cleared Cardi of any wrongdoing, the judge ruled that he would not “second-guess” the verdict.MEGAN HEADED TO TRIAL – A judge sided with Megan Thee Stallion in an early skirmish in her legal war with record label 1501 Certified Entertainment, refusing to grant the company a quick victory and ordering the case to instead be decided by a jury. 1501 had argued that the judge himself could decide whether her 2021 release Something for Thee Hotties counted as an “album” under her record deal, but her lawyers said she must be “allowed her day in court.” STEVEN TYLER ABUSE CASE – Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler was hit with a lawsuit accusing him of sexually assaulting a minor in the 1970s, claiming he convinced her parents to sign over custody and forced her to get an abortion. The case was filed by Julia Holcomb, who says she was the underage girl that Tyler repeatedly referenced in his racy 2011 memoir, in which he said he was “so in love I almost took a teen bride.”
A woman who alleges Bill Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1986 sued the comedian-actor, NBCUniversal and other companies Friday (Dec. 30) in New York, where five other women filed a similar lawsuit earlier this month.
Stacey Pinkerton says she was a 21-year-old flight attendant and model that year when she claims Cosby drugged her at a restaurant in Illinois and took her back to a hotel room in Chicago. The lawsuit alleges Cosby “engaged in forced sexual intercourse” with her while she was incapacitated from the drugs.
The lawsuit comes more than a year after Cosby left prison after his 2018 sexual assault conviction in Pennsylvania was overturned. Earlier this year, a Los Angeles jury awarded $500,000 to a woman who said Cosby sexually abused her at the Playboy Mansion when she was a teenager in 1975.
Pinkerton says the alleged assault came after she had met Cosby in New York and he promised to help her career. She says she had a role in an episode of The Cosby Show on NBC, but did not appear in the final edit.
Months after the alleged assault, Pinkerton said Cosby invited her to his show at a Chicago theater, where she claims he forcefully kissed and touched her.
“Cosby engaged in the same or similar pattern of conduct with his victims,” Pinkerton’s lawsuit says, “including expressing interest in advancing their careers, giving them roles on The Cosby Show, using The Cosby Show and its filming locations as a means to access, isolate, sexually harass, and sexually assault women, using drugs to incapacitate his victims, and forcibly engaging in sexual acts with them without their consent.”
The lawsuit alleges that NBC, Kaufman Astoria Studios and Carsey-Werner Television should have known Cosby was a danger to women and failed to protect Pinkerton from him.
Cosby spokesperson Andrew Wyatt said Friday night that Cosby “continues to vehemently deny all allegations waged against him and looks forward to defending himself in court.”
“As we have always stated, and now America can see, this isn’t about justice for victims of alleged sexual assault, it’s ALL ABOUT MONEY,” Wyatt wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “We believe that the courts, as well as the court of public opinion, will follow the rules of law and relieve Mr. Cosby of these alleged accusations.”
Representatives of NBCUniversal, Kaufman Astoria Studios and Carsey-Werner Television did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday night. All three companies were involved in the production of The Cosby Show,” Pinkerton’s lawsuit said.
The lawsuits by Pinkerton and the five other women were filed under New York’s one-year window for adults to file sexual abuse complaints for allegations that had fallen outside the statute of limitations to sue.
Cosby served nearly three years in prison before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his conviction, finding that he gave incriminating testimony in a deposition about the encounter only after believing he had immunity from prosecution. The trial judge and an intermediate appeals court had found no evidence of such immunity.
Seven other accusers received a settlement from Cosby’s insurers in the wake of the Pennsylvania conviction over a defamation lawsuit they had filed in Massachusetts. Their lawsuit said that Cosby and his agents disparaged them in denying their allegations of abuse.
Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler is facing a new lawsuit accusing him of sexually assaulting a minor in the 1970s, filed by a woman who claims she was referenced in the singer’s memoir as almost his “teen bride.”
In a complaint filed Tuesday in Los Angeles court, Julia Holcomb says Tyler used his “power as a well-known musician and rock star” in order to “gain access to, groom, manipulate, exploit” and sexually assault her for three years starting in 1973, when she was just 16 years old.
The lawsuit does not name Tyler, listing only an anonymous John Doe defendant. But Holcomb’s lawyers repeatedly quote from Tyler’s memoir Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? when referring to the alleged perpetrator, who they identify as a “leading member of a world-famous rock band.” Tyler’s book itself, reviewed by Billboard, also lists a “Julia Halcomb” in the acknowledgments.
“She was 16, she knew how to nasty, and there wasn’t a hair on it,” Tyler wrote in the book passage that’s quoted in the lawsuit. “I was so in love I almost took a teen bride.”
The lawsuit alleges that Tyler convinced Holcomb’s parents to grant him guardianship over her — an accusation that also came with quotes from his memoir: “I went and slept at her parents’ house for a couple of nights and her parents fell in love with me, signed paper over for me to have custody, so I wouldn’t get arrested if I took her out of state.”
The lawsuit also claims Tyler impregnated Holcomb but later “pressured and coerced” her into eventually aborting the pregnancy.
Billboard independently obtained a copy of the lawsuit, which was first reported Thursday by Rolling Stone. A representative for Tyler did not immediately return a request for comment.
The allegations against Tyler are not new. Holcomb made similar accusations in a 2011 article published by the anti-abortion website LifesiteNews, and she made the same claims in 2020 during an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s television show on Fox News.
The new lawsuit, which included claims for sexual battery, sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotion distress, was filed just days before the expiration of California’s Child Victims Act, which temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for sexual abuse lawsuits. After a three-year window of availability, the deadline to file such long-delayed lawsuits is Dec. 31.
Read the entire lawsuit here: