Music News

Trending on Billboard

A judge has thrown out civil sexual assault claims brought against Kevin Liles by an executive assistant who worked for the legendary record executive at Def Jam in the early 2000s.

An anonymous woman filed suit in February alleging Liles, who was her boss and the president of Def Jam, made sexually inappropriate comments, groped her and ultimately raped her in 2002. Liles denied the claims as “patently false,” saying when they were filed that he has “intentionally built a reputation for doing things the right way, treating people the right way and empowering women.”

Related

As it turns out, these allegations are barred entirely from court. That’s because Def Jam’s corporate parent, Universal Music Group (UMG), already paid the woman $47,500 in 2005 to settle a civil rights complaint she’d filed with New York state regulators.

That original complaint alleged the woman was unlawfully fired in retaliation for complaining about verbal harassment and inappropriate dancing by Liles. It did not include rape claims. Without admitting any wrongdoing, UMG agreed to pay the woman in exchange for her agreeing not to bring any further legal action.

Liles was not involved in that settlement agreement, since he’d left Def Jam by the time it was signed. But U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald held in a Monday (Nov. 24) order that the release language still “expressly and unambiguously covered” Liles, meaning the woman cannot now sue the music mogul.

“The agreement and release itself contains no language cabining its terms at all,” wrote Judge Buchwald. “To the contrary, the agreement consistently and intentionally utilizes broad language discharging ‘any and all’ claims which ‘are known or reasonably should be known’ by plaintiff.”

The judge threw out the lawsuit permanently, saying there’s no amendment the woman could make that would allow her to “avoid the consequences of a comprehensive settlement agreement.”

Reps for Liles declined to comment on the decision Monday. Lawyers for the accuser did not immediately return requests for comment.

Liles ran Def Jam from 1999 to 2004, and he co-founded 300 Entertainment with Lyor Cohen, Roger Gold and Todd Moscowitz in 2012. The label, which quickly gained recognition for developing hip-hop superstars like Megan Thee Stallion, Migos and Young Thug, was acquired by Warner for $400 million in 2021. He left his role as 300’s CEO last year.

A few months after the former Def Jam assistant brought her lawsuit this past year, Liles put out a statement saying rapper Lady Luck was trying to extort him with false sexual assault claims of her own. Liles said in May that Lady Luck, who was signed to Def Jam during his tenure, had threatened to release a book and file a lawsuit filled with “utterly false and horrendous allegations” if he didn’t pay her $30 million.

Trending on Billboard

Three years after Aaron Carter’s sudden death at the age of 34, the deceased singer’s family has been granted a trial next year against doctors and pharmacies that gave him access to Xanax pills.

The 2000s teen pop sensation drowned in a bathtub in 2022 after inhaling refrigerant gas and taking Xanax. Carter’s former fiancée later sued on behalf of the son they had together, alleging that psychiatrist Dr. John Faber and dentist Dr. Jason Mirabile over-prescribed him Xanax, and that Walgreens and an independent Los Angeles pharmacy wrongly filled the prescriptions without checking to see if Carter was abusing the drug.

Related

Both the doctors and the pharmacies sought to throw out the case based on expert reports concluding that the amount of Xanax in Carter’s system was not enough to make him lose consciousness, and that the real culprit was the gas he inhaled from canisters of compressed air (known as difluoroethane). But Carter’s lawyers have their own experts who say Xanax was at least partly to blame for his drowning — meaning the case must be decided by a jury.

“Defendant concedes that plaintiff’s opposition, supported by expert Dr. George C. Georgaklis, raises a triable issue of material fact as to the medical malpractice claim,” wrote Judge Daniel L. Alexander in a July 31 order rejecting Dr. Mirabile’s argument. “Thus, the Court denies the motion for summary adjudication as to medical negligence and wrongful death.”

Judge Alexander similarly denied Santa Monica Medical Plaza Pharmacy’s motion on Sept. 22 and arguments from both Walgreens and Dr. Faber this past Friday (Nov. 21). The negligence and wrongful death claims are now set for trial in June 2026, unless a settlement is reached before then.

Related

The various summary judgment orders did, however, trim away portions of the lawsuit that sought damages for the pain and suffering Carter experienced before his death. The judge said these are claims that only Carter’s estate representative has the right to bring, not his now four-year-old son, Princeton Lyric Carter.

That means that if the lawsuit indeed goes to trial in June, the child can only seek financial damages from the doctors and pharmacies for harm he himself suffered from Carter’s death. This includes loss of financial support and emotional damage from not getting to know his father.  

In a statement to Billboard on Monday (Nov. 24), the Carter family’s attorney Marc Lazo said his team is now “hopeful that the defendants will realize the magnitude of their liability and enter into good-faith settlement negotiations accordingly.” 

Lawyers for the doctors and pharmacies did not immediately return requests for comment.

Carter got his start opening for the Backstreet Boys, of which his older brother Nick Carter was a member, in the late 1990s. He later became a teen heartthrob in his own right, with his 2000 album Aaron’s Party (Come and Get It) peaking at No. 4 and spending 67 weeks on the Billboard 200.

Carter was open later in life about struggling with substance abuse. The singer did multiple stints in rehab, and he had been attending outpatient therapy in the months leading up to his death.