Garth Brooks, one of country music’s biggest stars, has been accused of sexual assault by a woman who allegedly raped her in a Los Angeles hotel room and made repeated unwanted sexual advances over a period of about two years. It was revealed in the lawsuit that this had happened. It was filed Thursday in a California court.
The woman is not named in court documents, but is described as a hair and makeup stylist who worked with Brooks from 2017 to about 2020. During that time, the woman described graphic sexual fantasies and repeatedly harassed her, the complaint states. When he came out of the shower, she put her hand on his genitals.
Brooks said in a statement Thursday night that for the past two months, he has been “abundantly bombarded with threats, lies, and tragic stories about what my future would be if I didn’t write him a check for millions of dollars.” said. It’s a dollar. ”
“Hush money is still more or less hush money,” he added. “In my mind, it means admitting the things you cannot do yourself, the ugly things a human being should never do to another person.”
Mr. Brooks, 62, is one of the biggest stars in country music and beyond, selling tens of millions of albums and, decades after the start of his career, still enjoying a cult following. He is a famous figure who performs to stadiums full of fans. He has also long been passionate about charities, particularly those focused on children and community relief after natural disasters.
But the lawsuit accuses him of preying on women who worked for him and then trying to silence them.
The lawsuit surrounding the woman’s accusations began three weeks ago in a lawsuit filed anonymously in federal court in Mississippi. In the case, known as John Doe v. Jane Roe, a man identified only as a “celebrity and public figure residing in Tennessee" accused a Mississippi woman of “sexual harassment that she claims occurred years ago.” “He made false and outrageous allegations of illegal conduct.” ” He asked the judge to protect his identity and declare that the woman’s accusations against him were false.
In a response filing this week, the woman’s attorney described the lawsuit as a preemptive move to silence her, saying the woman plans to immediately sue the man by name. He said there is.
The woman’s 27-page lawsuit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges she is the same person named as a defendant in the Mississippi lawsuit and identifies Brooks as a John Doe plaintiff. are.
Court papers in her California case call the Mississippi case “a blatant attempt to further control and bully sexual assault victims by using the assets of a millionaire to exploit the legal system.” It is said that
The woman is described as an experienced hair and makeup artist who has worked in the entertainment industry for decades and was in Brooks’ orbit for many years, according to the complaint.
According to the complaint, the woman was hired in 1999 to work for country singer Trisha Yearwood, who married Brooks in 2005. The woman continued to work for Mr. Yearwood, and in 2017 she began working for Trisha Yearwood. Mr. Brooks.
The complaint alleges that in 2019, the woman came to Brooks’ home for work during a period of “financial hardship” and was “terrified that Mr. Brooks would emerge from the shower naked and with an erection.” “I looked up.” He grabbed her hand and pressed it against his genitals, the suit said.
The woman refused him, but did not leave the house because she needed to work, according to the complaint.
In May of that year, he took her on a private plane to Los Angeles for a concert. “Normally, there were other passengers on Mr. Brooks’ private jet, but in this case Mr. Roe and Mr. Brooks were the only passengers,” the complaint states. They went to a hotel, and she realized they would be together in a one-bedroom suite.
Brooks then stripped naked, overpowered the woman, grabbed her hands and dragged her to another room, where he raped her, the complaint alleges. The complaint states that the woman is less than 5 feet tall and weighs less than 100 pounds, while Brooks is significantly larger at 6 feet.
The encounter caused the woman “debilitating pain in her neck and lower back,” and she had to seek gynecological treatment after the rape, according to court documents. She considered suicide, according to the complaint.
The woman continued to work for Brooks, and Brooks continued to harass her by telling her about graphic sexual fantasies and sending her suggestive text messages, according to the complaint.
According to the complaint, around May 2020, Brooks told Yearwood and her manager about sex toys while the woman was present. She then sent him a message saying she couldn’t work in that kind of environment, according to the lawsuit. “I mean no harm to you. If you truly value my work, I would be happy to call on you tomorrow and/or any time you need my services.” She sent the same text to Mr. Brooks, according to the complaint. , and Yearwood also copied it.
In 2020, Brooks secretly took the woman’s cell phone and deleted some of the texts he had sent her, according to the complaint.
Some text messages were left behind, according to the complaint, and the woman’s court documents include an edited image of some of what appeared to be flirtatious text messages between the woman and Brooks. It is said that it is included. The complaint says Brooks “encouraged Mr. Rowe to speak to him in a sexual manner.”
The woman moved to Mississippi by 2021, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit alleges sexual assault, assault, and sexual assault. The lawsuit allows for the reinstatement of sexual abuse claims brought under California’s Sexual Abuse and Concealed Liability Act, which would otherwise be barred by the statute of limitations.
The lawsuit against Mr. Brooks is the latest in a series of high-profile accusations of sexual misconduct against prominent men in the music industry over the past few years, many of which have been brought under California and New York state law. .
Over the past year, at least nine women have accused Sean Combs, the hip-hop mogul known as Diddy and Puff Daddy, of sexual misconduct, and last month Combs was accused of sex trafficking and racketeering. He was charged in a federal case in New York with . conspiracy. He denies the charges and is being held in a Brooklyn jail pending trial.
“The complaint filed today shows that sex offenders are not just in corporate America, Hollywood, or the rap and rock ‘n’ roll industries,” Douglas H. Wigdor, an attorney for the women who accused Brooks, said in a statement. ” he said. Even in the country music world. ”
“We filed suit against this individual nearly a month ago to challenge extortion and defamation,” Brooks said in a statement, referring to the Mississippi lawsuit.
He added: “I’m not afraid of the truth. I’m not who they portray me to be.”
