Garth Brooks has filed to dismiss the sexual assault and battery lawsuit towards him.
Brooks, 62, filed a brand new movement late on Friday, November 8 obtained by Deadline, requesting a listening to to formally shut the authorized battle. He beforehand requested for the case to switch from Mississippi to federal court docket. The listening to is requested for December 9.
“Certainly, a couple of days after Brooks’ counsel reached out to Roe’s counsel to satisfy and confer about this Movement to Dismiss, Roe filed a movement within the Southern District of Mississippi that requested the court docket there to switch the Mississippi Motion to this Court docket as a result of, based on Roe, Brooks’ tort claims towards Roe are obligatory counterclaims that come up from the identical operative details,” the court docket paperwork learn.
Roe, an nameless hairstylist who accused Brooks of assault, has not responded to his authorized submitting. Certainly one of her attorneys, Jeanne M. Christensen, nonetheless, informed Deadline, “That is simply extra of the identical bullying and intimidation Garth Brooks has used from the second he realized our consumer meant to carry him accountable. We sit up for getting earlier than a jury and reaching the deserves of this case.”
In accordance with court docket paperwork obtained by Us Weekly, a girl recognized as “Jane Roe” filed a lawsuit towards the nation singer, on October 3, claiming that Brooks raped her throughout a 2019 work journey to Los Angeles. Roe additional claimed that Brooks despatched her sexually express textual content messages and repeatedly uncovered his genitals to her.
Roe started working for Brooks in 2017 after beforehand being employed to do hair and make-up for his now-wife, Trisha Yearwood, in 1999, based on the lawsuit.
Previous to Roe’s grievance, Brooks denied the allegations in an nameless submitting meant to dam Roe from sharing her claims publicly.
“Defendant’s allegations are usually not true,” the submitting claimed. “Defendant is effectively conscious, nonetheless, of the substantial, irreparable harm such false allegations would do to Plaintiff’s well-earned popularity as an honest and caring individual, together with the unavoidable harm to his household and the irreparable harm to his profession and livelihood that may consequence if she made good on her risk to ‘publicly file’ her fabricated lawsuit.”
Roe’s attorneys fired again at Brooks in a press release to Us, calling his “efforts to silence” their consumer “nothing apart from an act of desperation and tried intimidation.”
“We’re assured that Brooks will likely be held accountable for his actions,” the assertion from attorneys Douglas H. Wigdor, Jeanne M. Christensen and Hayley Baker continued. “We applaud our consumer’s braveness in transferring ahead together with her grievance towards Garth Brooks. The grievance filed right now demonstrates that sexual predators exist not solely in company America, Hollywood and within the rap and rock and roll industries, but additionally on the earth of nation music.”
Brooks subsequently broke his silence on the allegations.
“For the final two months, I’ve been hassled to no finish with threats, lies and tragic tales of what my future could be if I didn’t write a verify for a lot of tens of millions of {dollars},” he informed Us in an October 3 assertion. “It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face.”
“Hush cash, regardless of how a lot or how little, remains to be hush cash. In my thoughts, meaning I’m admitting to conduct I’m incapable of — ugly acts no human ought to ever do to a different,” he continued. “We filed swimsuit towards this individual almost a month in the past to talk out towards extortion and defamation of character. We filed it anonymously for the sake of households on either side.”
“I need to play music tonight,” the nation star concluded. “I need to proceed our good deeds going ahead. It breaks my coronary heart [that] these great issues are in query now. I belief the system, I don’t concern the reality, and I’m not the person they’ve painted me to be.”
Later that month, Brooks filed a grievance towards his accuser, claiming he was the “sufferer of a shakedown” and searching for compensatory and punitive damages. Within the October 8 submitting, Brooks claimed that his accuser “threatened” in a July letter to “publicly file” her “fabricated allegations” until he “agreed to pay Defendant tens of millions of {dollars} to not file the swimsuit.” In an alleged follow-up letter, she “provided to chorus from publicly submitting her false and defamatory lawsuit towards Plaintiff in trade for a multi-million greenback fee,” based on the paperwork.
Brooks alleged that his accuser leaked his identify to the general public and accused him of sexual assault after he wouldn’t comply with her “calls for for salaried employment and medical advantages.” He responded by submitting a secondary swimsuit that listed his accuser’s actual identify relatively than “Jane Roe.”
Roe’s attorneys reacted to Brooks’ submitting in an October 8 assertion to Us. “Garth Brooks simply revealed his true self,” the authorized crew mentioned. “Out of spite and to punish, he publicly named a rape sufferer. With no authorized justification, Brooks outed her as a result of he thinks the legal guidelines don’t apply to him. On behalf of our consumer, we will likely be transferring for max sanctions towards him instantly.”
Amid the ordeal, a supply solely informed Us in October that Yearwood, 60, “utterly believes Garth and has full religion that the allegations are false,” including that his spouse of 18 years is “supporting him one hundred pc.”
Should you or somebody you already know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the Nationwide Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).