US country music star Garth Brooks stands accused of raping a makeup artist in her hotel room in a lawsuit filed in California on Thursday, in the latest claim of sexual wrongdoing to rock the entertainment world.
The woman, identified in the filing as Jane Roe, says the singer also repeatedly subjected her to unwanted sexual advances, including exposing himself and groping her when they were working together in 2019.
The lawsuit is the latest to be leveled against a high-profile man in the entertainment industry after a slew of claims rocked television and film over the past decade, in a reckoning that came to be known as the #MeToo movement.
Photo: Reuters
It also comes days after more than 100 people filed suits against rapper and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, alleging he subjected them to sexual abuse, on top of the federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges he is already facing.
“The complaint filed today demonstrates that sexual predators exist not only in corporate America, Hollywood and in the rap and rock and roll industries, but also in the world of country music,” the accuser’s attorneys Douglas Wigdor, Jeanne Christensen and Hayley Baker said in a statement. “We are confident that Brooks will be held accountable for his actions.”
The suit, filed in Los Angeles, says Brooks filed a pre-emptive lawsuit last month in Mississippi.
In that action, which he filed under an alias, he sought an injunction blocking “extortionate conduct” and alleging the woman was seeking a multimillion-dollar payout.
“[Brooks’] efforts to silence our client through the filing of a pre-emptive complaint in Mississippi was nothing other than an act of desperation and attempted intimidation,” the California suit says.
Jane Roe’s suit says she worked initially for Brooks’ wife, country singer Trisha Yearwood, doing her hair and makeup in 1999.
She began to work for Brooks in 2017 and took on more work in 2019.
The papers claim the woman was at Brooks’ home when he walked into the room with an erection, which he forced her to touch as he spoke lasciviously to her.
They also say that in May 2019, the two traveled together to Las Vegas, where she was shocked to discover they were sharing a hotel suite with only one bedroom.
“Suddenly Brooks appeared in the doorway to the bedroom, completely naked. He stood there and flexed his muscles. Ms Roe immediately had a sick feeling in her stomach, knowing she was trapped in the room alone with Brooks, with no one to help and far away from Nashville,” the lawsuit says. “Tragically, her worst fears came true when seconds later he was towering over her, his 6-foot and almost 300-pound frame ready to pounce on Ms Roe, who is less than 5 feet and 100 pounds. As she began to panic, he grabbed her hands and pulled her into the next room and onto the bed where she could not escape his physical domination.”
The lawsuit, which demands unspecified damages, says Roe was so traumatized by the attack that she later considered suicide.
Brooks, 62, surged to national fame in the 1990s, with hits such as Friends in Low Places and The Dance.
In 2015, he topped Elvis Presley for the highest number of albums sold by a male artist.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS