Bob Dylan representatives want huge fines against attorneys who filed sex abuse case
The legal team representing Bob Dylan have demanded tens of thousands of dollars in fines against the attorneys who unsuccessfully accused the 81-year-old musician of sexually abusing a child in 1965.
Dylan’s camp claimed they filed the “heinous” allegations solely to “extract a settlement payment”. The original lawsuit detailed that the ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ singer had sexually abused a minor during his mid-1960s career peak. However, historians quickly pointed out that it wasn’t plausible, and the unnamed accuser quietly dropped the case this summer after Dylan’s lawyers accused her of destroying key evidence.
On Monday, Dylan’s attorneys followed through after pledging to pursue penalties against the lawyers who filed the suit. They’re currently seeking a $50,000 fine, plus repayment of his legal bills – an undetermined figure that could equate to tens of thousands more, considering the high-brow law firm Dylan hired.
The Nobel prize-winning songwriter’s attorneys say the case should never have been filed and that the attorneys who did so – Daniel Isaacs and Peter Gleason – should not be “permitted to get away scot-free”.
“The inescapable conclusion is that Mr. Isaacs and Mr. Gleason never intended to actually litigate this action,” wrote Dylan’s lead counsel Orin Snyder of the firm Gibson Dunn. “Instead, they filed the complaint knowing it would generate worldwide media coverage, which it did, and then spent months trying to leverage that publicity and the threat of embarrassment to extract a settlement payment.”
The original case against Dylan was filed in August 2021, as the accuser claimed he had abused her multiple times at Manhattan’s Chelsea Hotel in April and May 1965. She said he provided her with drugs and alcohol and “exploited” his status to “sexually molest her”. But rock historians and Dylan experts quickly cast doubt on the allegations, saying Dylan was away from New York City on a European tour during most of the time in question.
In July, after Dylan’s lawyers accused Isaacs and Gleason of refusing to comply with court orders to turn over evidence in discovery, a judge requested they do so “for the love of god” and threatened them with sanctions. Weeks later, Dylan’s team alleged that the accuser had deleted crucial emails and texts that might denounce her spiralling case. In the face of these mounting accusations, the accuser dropped her case at a hearing on July 28th.
Dylan’s team have now accused Isaacs and Gleason of attacking Dylan with “the most heinous allegations imaginable,” which could have been easily avoided if they had “complied with their most basic obligations” as lawyers: “Counsel filed the Complaint even though the most rudimentary investigation would have revealed the claims to be false.”
They then “engaged in a pattern of deliberate discovery misconduct and violations of this Court’s rules and orders,” Dylan’s lawyers wrote.
Isaacs had previously rejected such claims and argued that the case was “brought in good faith and with the intent of responsibility litigating the matter.” He blamed the problems on the “recalcitrance” of his client, whom he said refused to hand over key materials “despite my repeated requests.”
“At no point did either Mr. Gleason or I willfully withhold discovery or engage in discovery misconduct,” Isaacs wrote back in August. “We attempted to comply as best we could given the circumstances, including plaintiff suffering PTSD, which was exacerbated when her identity was illegally made public following the commencement of this action.”
This excuse evidently held little conviction in the eyes of Dylan’s team. On Monday, they stated: “Mr. Isaacs and Mr. Gleason are directly responsible for this pattern of serious discovery misconduct, and any effort to blame their client should be rejected.”
Gleason and Isaacs have declined to comment on this week’s developments, but Gleason told Billboard that the “plaintiff’s counsel welcomes the opportunity to respond to this motion.” As the case continues, a formal rebuttal is expected to be filed in the coming weeks.
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