Country star Garth Brooks accused of rape and sexual assault
Country star Garth Brooks has been accused of sexual assault and battery in a civil lawsuit filed in Los Angeles by a hair and makeup artist. Brooks has denied the allegations.
The accuser has chosen to remain anonymous and is only named in the suit as Jane Roe. She alleged that on a work trip to Los Angeles in 2019, Brooks raped her. She also claimed he repeatedly groped her and made sexually explicit comments while she was doing his hair and makeup throughout 2019.
According to her California complaint, the woman accusing Brooks has worked in the music industry for more than 30 years, including doing hair and makeup for celebrities appearing in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and other publications. She previously worked for Trisha Yearwood, Brooks’ wife.
She alleges that Brooks forcefully raped her in a Los Angeles hotel room in May, 2019. After the alleged sexual assault, she had to visit her OB-GYN because of her injuries and was left with severe back and neck pain and emotional trauma, according to the complaint. The assault and harassment allegedly didn’t stop there, as she also claimed he would say explicit comments at her and repeatedly grope her breasts, including while she was styling him for events.
She alleges that this happened so often “that it was inevitable that other employees of Brooks’s likely saw or heard instances of the unwanted physical groping of her breasts while she was styling his hair and doing his make-up”.
The lawyer supporting the accuser is well known for working on cases like these. Attorney, Douglas Wigdor, is known as a “leading #MeToo lawyer”, specialising in sexual misconduct case that include high powered men. He previously represented women who accusing Harvey Weinstein, Bill O’Reilly, Joe Biden and more.
Wigdor alleges that Brooks took advantage of the makeup artist while she was struggling financially by offering her more frequent paid work and then engaging in a pattern of sexual assault and harassment.
In a statement made to The Guardian, Wigdor and the accuser’s other lawyers said, “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.”
Brooks has responded to the allegations and lawsuit. In a statement and in a separate lawsuit he filed in Mississippi back in September, Brooks said the allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment were false and were designed to extort money from him.
“For the last two months, I have been hassled to no end with threats, lies, and tragic tales of what my future would be if I did not write a check for many millions of dollars. It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face,” Brooks said. “Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money. In my mind, that means I am admitting to behavior I am incapable of – ugly acts no human should ever do to another.”
Attorneys for Jane Roe said the lawsuit Brooks against her in Mississippi last month, where he asked a federal court “to declare a sexual assault accuser’s allegations untrue and stop her from further publicising them”, was an attempt to block her from publicising her allegations against him.
For help, advice or more information regarding sexual harassment, assault and rape in the UK, visit the Rape Crisis charity website. In the US, visit RAINN.
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