Bangkok Post – US country star Garth Brooks charged with rape and assault

Garth Brooks, one of country music's biggest stars in the United States, has been accused of sexual assault by a woman who said he raped her in a Los Angeles hotel room and repeatedly subjected her to unwanted sexual acts over a period of about two years Exposed to advance attempts. This emerges from a lawsuit filed on Thursday in a California court.

The woman was not named in court documents but was described as a hairdresser and makeup stylist who worked with Brooks from 2017 to around 2020. During that time, her lawsuit says he repeatedly harassed her by describing graphic sexual fantasies and, in one instance, placing his hands on his genitals as he got out of the shower.

In a statement Thursday evening, Brooks said that over the past two months he had been “harassed non-stop with threats, lies and tragic stories about what my future would look like if I didn't write a multi-million dollar check.”

“Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money,” he added. “For me, that means admitting to behavior that I am incapable of – ugly acts that no human being should do to another.”

Brooks, 62, is a star extraordinaire in the world of country music and beyond, a household name who has sold tens of millions of albums and still performs to stadiums full of adoring fans decades into his career. He has also long been involved with charities, particularly those focused on children and local relief after natural disasters.

But the lawsuit accuses him of taking advantage of a woman who works for him and then trying to silence her.

The legal battle over the woman's allegations began three weeks ago with an anonymous lawsuit filed in federal court in Mississippi. In this case called “John Doe v. Jane Roe,” a man identified only as a “celebrity and public figure residing in Tennessee” said that a woman residing in Mississippi “has made false and outrageous allegations of sexual misconduct that she claims took place years ago.” .” He asked a judge to protect his identity and declare that the woman's allegations against him were false.

In a response this week, the woman's lawyers portrayed the lawsuit as a preemptive move to silence her and said she would file her lawsuit shortly and mention the man's name.

The 27-page lawsuit the woman filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court says she is the same person listed as a defendant in the Mississippi lawsuit and identifies Brooks as a John Doe plaintiff.

Court filings in her California case call the Mississippi case “a blatant attempt to further control and victimize his sexual assault victim by using his multimillionaire resources to outsmart the legal system.”

The lawsuit describes the woman as an experienced hair and makeup artist who has worked in the entertainment industry for decades and has long been in Brooks' circle.

According to her lawsuit, the woman was hired in 1999 to work for country singer Trisha Yearwood, who married Brooks in 2005. The woman continued to work for Yearwood, the lawsuit says, and in 2017 she also began working for Brooks.

In 2019, the lawsuit says that while the woman was “struggling financially,” she was at Brooks' home for work and “looked up in horror when Brooks emerged from the shower naked and with an erection.” He grabbed her hands and forced them onto his genitals, the lawsuit says.

The woman turned him down, the lawsuit says, but because she needed the work, she didn't leave the house.

In May of that year, he took her to a concert in Los Angeles on a private plane. “There were usually others on Brooks' private jet,” the lawsuit says, “but this time, Ms. Roe and Brooks were the only two passengers.” They went to a hotel and she realized they were together in a suite with only would live in one bedroom.

Brooks then stripped naked and overpowered the woman, grabbing her hands and dragging her into another room, where the suit says he raped her. The suit describes the woman as being less than 5 feet tall and weighing 100 pounds, and Brooks as 6 feet tall and significantly larger.

The court papers say the encounter left the woman with “debilitating pain in her neck and lower back” and that she sought treatment from her gynecologist following the rape. She considered suicide, the lawsuit says.

After that encounter, the lawsuit says, the woman continued to work for Brooks and he continued to harass her, telling her about graphic sexual fantasies involving her and sending her suggestive text messages.

Around May 2020, the lawsuit says, Brooks discussed sex toys with Yearwood and his manager in the woman's presence. Later, the lawsuit says, she sent him a text message saying she couldn't work in such an environment. “I mean no harm to you, and if you truly value my work, I would be happy to come by tomorrow and/or whenever you need my services.” According to the lawsuit, she copied the same text into an email to Brooks, copying Yearwood became.

According to the lawsuit, in 2020, Brooks secretly took the woman's phone and deleted some of his text messages to her.

Some texts remained, the lawsuit says, and the woman's court records included a partially redacted image of a text message between her and Brooks that appeared to be flirtatious. That text, the lawsuit says, was a text in which Brooks “encouraged Ms. Roe to speak to him in a sexualized manner.”

In 2021, the lawsuit says, the woman moved to Mississippi.

The lawsuit alleges sexual assault, assault and gender-based violence. The lawsuit was filed under California's Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act, which allows for the revival of sexual abuse claims that would otherwise be barred.

The lawsuit against Brooks is the latest in a series of high-profile sexual misconduct allegations against prominent men in the music industry in recent years, many of which were filed under California law and a similar law in New York.

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 charged with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy in a federal lawsuit in New York. He has denied those allegations and is being held in a Brooklyn jail pending trial.

In a statement, Douglas Wigdor, an attorney for the woman who sued Brooks, said: “The lawsuit filed today shows that sexual predators exist not only in corporate America, Hollywood, and the rap and rock 'n' roll industries; but also in the…” world of country music.”

Brooks referred to the Mississippi lawsuit in his statement: “We filed a lawsuit against this individual almost a month ago to speak out against extortion and defamation of character.”

He added: “I'm not afraid of the truth and I'm not the man they made me out to be.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.