Country star Garth Brooks accused of sexual assault and battery in new lawsuit
Topics: Music
Yasmeen Hamadeh
Featured Image Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy / Jason Kempin/Getty Images
Topics: Music
Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual assault which some readers may find distressing
Country music star Garth Brooks has been accused of sexual assault and battery in a new lawsuit.
Obtained by CNN, the lawsuit was reportedly filed in the state of California on Thursday from a 'Jane Roe' who says she worked for the singer as a hairstylist and makeup artist.
Her suit reportedly details that she began working for Brooks in 2017, but she was first hired to do hair and makeup for his wife, Trisha Yearwood, in 1999.
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Per CNN, the suit alleges that the incidents occurred in 2019 and accuses Brooks of repeatedly exposing his genitals, sending sexually explicit text messages, talking about sex and sharing sexual fantasies with Roe, and regularly changing their clothes in front of them.
The outlet further reports that Roe's filing also claims that in one alleged incident in 2019, she was at Brooks' home for work where he proceeded to walk out of the shower naked and 'grabbed her hands and forced them' onto his genitals.
She also alleged that in May 2019, Brooks raped her in a hotel room during a work trip to Los Angeles where the singer was taping a Grammy tribute performance.
Brooks previously denied the allegations, per CNN.
The outlet also reports that prior to Roe's filing, an anonymous celebrity plaintiff filed a complaint under 'John Doe' – now disclosed to be Brooks – that tried to block Roe from repeating her allegations publicly and denied the claims.
In his complaint as plaintiff John Doe, Brooks claimed that Roe's attorney sent him a 'confidential' demand letter alleging sexual misconduct after he had declined Roe's request for 'salaried employment and medical benefits.'
"Defendant's allegations are not true," the singer's previous lawsuit stated.
"Defendant is well aware, however, of the substantial, irreparable damage such false allegations would do to Plaintiff's well-earned reputation as a decent and caring person, along with the unavoidable damage to his family and the irreparable damage to his career and livelihood that would result if she made good on her threat to 'publicly file' her fabricated lawsuit."
Meanwhile, Roe's attorneys told CNN that Brooks' 'efforts to silence our client through the filing of a preemptive complaint in Mississippi was nothing other than an act of desperation and attempted intimidation'.
"We are confident that Brooks will be held accountable for his actions," attorneys Douglas H. Wigdor, Jeanne M. Christensen and Hayley Baker added in a statement to CNN.
"We applaud our client’s courage in moving forward with her complaint against Garth Brooks. 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."
UNILAD has reached out to representatives of Brooks for comment.
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org