Suits and Litigation (Civil)

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      Garth Brooks Names Woman Who Accused Him of Rape

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      In a court filing, lawyers for the country superstar portrayed him as “the victim of a shakedown” and asked for compensatory and punitive damages.Garth Brooks, the country superstar, has named the woman who, as Jane Roe, accused him of rape and sexual assault in a bombshell lawsuit last week.In a court filing in Mississippi on Tuesday, lawyers for Mr. Brooks portrayed the star as “the victim of a shakedown” and said the woman’s lawyers had “flouted” the authority of a judge in a related case.Litigation over the woman’s accusations began last month with a lawsuit that was filed anonymously — as John Doe v. Jane Roe — in federal court in Mississippi. The plaintiff, identified only as “a celebrity and public figure who resides in Tennessee,” said that lawyers for a woman had approached him in July with what he described as false allegations of sexual assault, and that they would sue Mr. Brooks unless he gave the woman “a multimillion-dollar payment.” The man asked the Mississippi judge to preserve the parties’ anonymity and declare that the woman’s accusations were false.In a response, lawyers for the woman said they intended to sue the man in California, saying that “Ms. Roe respectfully requests that she may commence her California action as she intended to do, and use Mr. Doe’s name, absent objection from this Honorable Court.”The court did not act, and two days later the woman filed her lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, naming Mr. Brooks but not herself. The suit accused Mr. Brooks of raping her in a Los Angeles hotel room in 2019, and of subjecting her to repeated unwanted sexual advances for about two years. The woman described herself as a hair and makeup stylist who had worked with Mr. Brooks’s wife, the country singer Trisha Yearwood, since 1999, and had begun working regularly for Mr. Brooks in 2017.The suit drew wide coverage in the news media, and its portrayal of Mr. Brooks ran counter to the positive public image he had cultivated for decades.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Garth Brooks Is Accused of Rape and Assault in Lawsuit

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      A woman who worked as a hair and makeup stylist for the country superstar says he subjected her to repeated advances. Mr. Brooks did not immediately respond to the allegations.Garth Brooks, one of country music’s biggest stars, has been accused of sexual assault by a woman who said he raped her in a Los Angeles hotel room and subjected her to repeated unwanted sexual advances over a period of about two years, according to a lawsuit filed in a California court on Thursday.The woman was not named in court papers but was described as a hair and makeup stylist who worked with Mr. Brooks from 2017 to about 2020. In that time, her suit says, he repeatedly harassed her, describing graphic sexual fantasies and in one instance placing her hands on his genitals when he came out of a shower.A spokeswoman for Mr. Brooks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Mr. Brooks, 62, is a star of the highest order in the world of country music and beyond, a household name who has sold tens of millions of albums and, decades into his career, still plays to stadiums full of adoring fans. He has also long been devoted to charitable organizations, particularly those focused on children and local relief after natural disasters.But the suit accuses him of preying on a woman working for him and then trying to silence her.Litigation over the woman’s accusation began three weeks ago with an anonymous suit filed in federal court in Mississippi. In that case — called John Doe v. Jane Roe — a man identified only as “a celebrity and public figure who resides in Tennessee” said that a woman residing in Mississippi had made “false and outrageous allegations of sexual misconduct she claims occurred years ago.” He asked a judge to protect his identity and to declare that the woman’s accusations against him were false.In a filing this week in response, the woman’s lawyers portrayed that lawsuit as a pre-emptive move to silence her, and said that she would be filing her case imminently, which would name the man.The 27-page lawsuit filed by the woman on Thursday, in Los Angeles Superior Court, says she is the same person listed as the defendant in the Mississippi action, and identifies Mr. Brooks as the John Doe plaintiff.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Lawyers for a Sean Combs Accuser Ask to Withdraw From Her Case

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      A dispute between Adria English, who has accused Mr. Combs of sexual misconduct, and her lawyers is the latest twist in the civil litigation the music mogul is facing.Lawyers for a woman who accused Sean Combs of plying her with drugs at his famous White Parties and commanding her to have sex with guests are seeking to withdraw from representing her, writing in court papers that she had displayed “undermining behavior and questionable antics.”The plaintiff, Adria English, sued Mr. Combs in July, alleging that as an employee who worked at the parties in the Hamptons and Miami in the mid-to-late 2000s, she had been “groomed” into being sex trafficked and had been given ecstasy-laced liquor.The lawsuit is one of a dozen sexual misconduct suits that have been filed against Mr. Combs over the past year. He is also facing a federal criminal case and was indicted last month on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty.In their court filing, lawyers for Ms. English, Ariel Mitchell-Kidd and Steven A. Metcalf, told a judge in federal court in Manhattan that “irreconcilable differences” had developed with their client.“As a result of a fundamental disagreement between Attorneys and Plaintiff regarding almost every aspect of the litigation,” the filing says, “including settlement demands, causes of actions in the pleadings and Plaintiff’s undermining behavior and questionable antics an irreconcilable conflict and tension has developed between Plaintiff and Attorneys.”Ms. Mitchell-Kidd said in a text message response to questions on Thursday, “I never lost faith in her case, just in her.”“Her case is great,” she added. “My issue was with her undermining my work and going behind my back doing things incongruent to advancing her case.”In a phone interview on Thursday, Ms. English — who reported her claims to the police in Miami Beach, Fla., after filing her lawsuit — said she was seeking new counsel. She said she had clashed with Ms. Mitchell-Kidd repeatedly, including over a demand from the lawyer that Ms. English not speak to the media.“I’m the client; you work for me,” Ms. English said to describe her perspective.Mr. Combs, who is currently detained in a Brooklyn jail after a judge ordered him held until trial, has denied sexually assaulting or sex trafficking anyone. In a statement on Wednesday, his representatives called Ms. English’s claims “fabricated.”“As we’ve said from the start, anyone can file a lawsuit without proof — and this case is a clear example of that,” the statement said. “Adria English escalated things by filing false police reports and making baseless claims, using high-profile events as a backdrop to harm innocent people.”Mr. Combs’s legal team has been defending him against a mounting pile of lawsuits since the indictment was brought in September and lawyers in Texas have said they are preparing suits on behalf of multiple accusers who have reached out to them with accounts of misconduct. More

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      Pras Sues Lauryn Hill Over Canceled Fugees Tour, Alleging Fraud

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      Ms. Hill was accused of deceiving the other group members about tour finances. She called the lawsuit “baseless” and “full of false claims.”After three years of stops and starts, a troubled reunion tour by the hip-hop trio the Fugees — Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras — was finally canceled in August, leaving fans wondering what had happened behind the scenes. One version of that story emerged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday by Pras against Ms. Hill and her company, MLH Touring.In the lawsuit, Pras — whose real name is Prakazrel Michel — laid out a withering portrait of a group in private conflict. He accused Ms. Hill of deceiving the other Fugees about the tour’s finances, trying to “usurp control” by taking over the group’s business and trademark, and unilaterally rejecting a $5 million offer for the Fugees to perform at this year’s Coachella festival.The suit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, includes claims of fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and refusing to permit an audit. It seeks unspecified damages.In a statement, Ms. Hill responded: “This baseless lawsuit by Pras is full of false claims and unwarranted attacks. It notably omits that he was advanced overpayment for the last tour and has failed to repay substantial loans extended by myself as an act of good will.”The Fugees, from New Jersey, became progressive standard-bearers for hip-hop in the 1990s with reggae-tinged hits like “Fu-Gee-La” and “Killing Me Softly,” and Ms. Hill broke out with her 1998 solo album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” which won the Grammy Award for album of the year.But the group’s history has long been tumultuous, and fans have been waiting decades for a proper tour. According to Mr. Michel’s suit, the latest troubles began as soon as their first batch of reunion dates was announced in 2021.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sean Combs’s White Parties Were Edgy, A-List Affairs. Were They More?

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      The events helped the music mogul raise his profile. But one woman who worked at them has said in court papers that the parties had a dark side, too.In the 2000s, few events held the cultural cachet of the White Party thrown by Sean Combs — fetes in Beverly Hills, the Hamptons and other playgrounds of the rich, studded with famous names and fabulous tableaus.At the 2009 party, Demi Moore made the scene with Lil’ Kim, dancers gyrated in giant plastic balloons alongside tottering stilt walkers, and Ashton Kutcher swung, Tarzan-like, across a swimming pool as models in white bikinis lounged beside it.And at the center of it all was Mr. Combs, the billionaire hip-hop mogul also known as Puff Daddy and Diddy, invariably toasting the scene with a glass of Cîroc vodka, and welcoming comparisons of his revels to those of lore.“Have I read ‘The Great Gatsby?’” Mr. Combs once told The Independent. “I am the Great Gatsby!”Today, Mr. Combs’s fortunes again invite comparison to Gatsby, though now through scandal. Prosecutors say Mr. Combs enlisted employees, enablers and prostitutes to stage far darker soirees than White Parties called “freak-offs” — drug-heavy, sometimes days-long hotel parties during which investigators say he abused and coerced participants into sexual acts, which he sometimes filmed and masturbated to.The criminal indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court this month has invited something of a reappraisal of the White Parties for some of those who reveled or worked at them. Were they merely innocuous, press-conscious branding events at which to see and be seen? Or was there, beyond the all-white facade, a darker element?Indeed, a recent lawsuit claims misdeeds occurred at those events, too: In July, Adria English, who was hired by Mr. Combs to work a series of White Parties in the mid-to-late 2000s, sued him, asserting she was plied with drugs and ecstasy-laced liquor at the events, and commanded to have sex with certain guests, making her into “a sexual pawn.” Jonathan Davis, a lawyer for Mr. Combs, denied in July that his client had ever “sexually assaulted or sex trafficked anyone.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      With Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in Jail, He Faces Another Lawsuit

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      The latest lawsuit includes accusations of drugging and coerced sex as recently as this year. Mr. Combs’s lawyers have said the claims are attempts to obtain quick settlements.A woman filed a lawsuit against the hip-hop mogul Sean Combs on Friday alleging that he repeatedly coerced her into forced sexual encounters over a period of several years, in part by compelling her to take drugs that caused her to fall unconscious.The suit, which was brought in state court in New York by an anonymous plaintiff who describes herself as a business owner and a model, recalls a relationship that continued on and off between 2021 and this year, in which Mr. Combs and his employees would arrange for her to travel to his homes.“Combs would make her ‘perform a show’ for him and would ply her with alcohol and substances until she passed out — she would wake up with bruising and injuries but with no recollection of how she sustained her injuries,” the lawsuit says.Representatives for Mr. Combs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The latest complaint against Mr. Combs comes as he faces federal racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges; he has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers have adamantly denied the charges, accusing prosecutors of manipulating sexual encounters between consenting adults into a sex trafficking case.As he awaits trial, detained in a Brooklyn jail, the civil suits against Mr. Combs have continued to grow. The lawsuit is the eighth filed over the past year by a woman accusing him of sexual assault; three other lawsuits have made allegations of sexual misconduct. Mr. Combs’s lawyers have been seeking dismissals of the other suits in court and have described them as false claims cobbled together to try to secure a financial settlement from Mr. Combs.The newest lawsuit said the plaintiff, who lives in Florida, met Mr. Combs overseas in 2020 and began seeing him regularly in 2021. Drivers would pick her up, the suit says, and she would be taken to his homes in Los Angeles, New York and Florida.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Woman Accuses Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs of Raping Her in Filmed Attack

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      In a new lawsuit, the woman said Mr. Combs and his bodyguard drugged and assaulted her in his recording studio in 2001.A woman accused the hip-hop mogul Sean Combs of drugging and raping her at his recording studio in Manhattan in 2001 in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, saying that she learned last year that the assault had been recorded and shown to others.The lawsuit was filed about a week after Mr. Combs, 54, was arrested on charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, to which he has pleaded not guilty. Six other women have accused Mr. Combs of sexual assault in lawsuits in the past year, while three additional lawsuits have accused him of sexual misconduct.The plaintiff in the suit filed on Tuesday, Thalia Graves, said in her complaint that she was 25 at the time of the assault and knew Mr. Combs through her boyfriend at the time, who was working for Bad Boy, Mr. Combs’s record label. The lawsuit said that in or around the summer of 2001, Mr. Combs called her and asked to meet in person. After arriving in an S.U.V. to pick her up, the lawsuit said, he offered her a glass of wine that made her feel “lightheaded, dizzy and physically weak.”When they arrived at the recording studio, the suit said, Ms. Graves lost consciousness and later woke up to find herself naked and her hands tied behind her back with “what felt like a plastic grocery bag.” She said in the court filing that a bodyguard of Mr. Combs’s had lifted her up and slammed her down onto a table, after which she recalled Mr. Combs raping her.“Plaintiff was unable to move, totally overpowered physically, in addition to being drugged and bound,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Manhattan.Representatives for Mr. Combs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Ms. Graves’s suit also names the bodyguard, Joseph Sherman, as a defendant, saying that he assaulted her and forced her to give him oral sex. Mr. Sherman said in an interview that he stopped working with Bad Boy in 1999 and had “nothing to do” with Mr. Combs by 2001.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Woman Accuses Sean Combs of Raping Her in Filmed Attack

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      In a new lawsuit, the woman said Mr. Combs and his bodyguard drugged and assaulted her in his recording studio in 2001.A woman accused the hip-hop mogul Sean Combs of drugging and raping her at his recording studio in Manhattan in 2001 in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, saying that she learned last year that the assault had been recorded and shown to others.The lawsuit was filed about a week after Mr. Combs, 54, was arrested on charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, to which he has pleaded not guilty. Six other women have accused Mr. Combs of sexual assault in lawsuits in the past year, while three additional lawsuits have accused him of sexual misconduct.The plaintiff in the suit filed on Tuesday, Thalia Graves, said in her complaint that she was 25 at the time of the assault and knew Mr. Combs through her boyfriend at the time, who was working for Bad Boy, Mr. Combs’s record label. The lawsuit said that in or around the summer of 2001, Mr. Combs called her and asked to meet in person. After arriving in an S.U.V. to pick her up, the lawsuit said, he offered her a glass of wine that made her feel “lightheaded, dizzy and physically weak.”When they arrived at the recording studio, the suit said, Ms. Graves lost consciousness and later woke up to find herself naked and her hands tied behind her back with “what felt like a plastic grocery bag.” She said in the court filing that a bodyguard of Mr. Combs’s had lifted her up and slammed her down onto a table, after which she recalled Mr. Combs raping her.“Plaintiff was unable to move, totally overpowered physically, in addition to being drugged and bound,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Manhattan.Representatives for Mr. Combs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Ms. Graves’s suit also names the bodyguard, Joseph Sherman, as a defendant, saying that he assaulted her and forced her to give him oral sex. Mr. Sherman said in an interview that he stopped working with Bad Boy in 1999 and had “nothing to do” with Mr. Combs by 2001.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More