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A federal decide has dismissed a lawsuit accusing Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler of sexually assaulting a teenage woman a long time in the past, ruling that she had waited too lengthy to carry her case.
Former teen mannequin Jeanne Bellino sued the rocker in November, claiming he had forcibly kissed, groped and “humped” her twice over a single day in Manhattan in the summertime of 1975. The case was filed beneath a recently-amended New York Metropolis regulation that permits abuse victims to sue over decades-old claims.
However in a ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Choose Lewis Kaplan dominated that Bellino’s case didn’t qualify beneath the brand new statute. He dominated that the particular “lookback” window solely applies to circumstances the place the abuser’s actions introduced a “critical threat of bodily damage” – and that Tyler’s alleged actions didn’t achieve this.
“The criticism on this case doesn’t alleged conduct presenting a critical threat of bodily damage and subsequently fails to state a legally ample declare beneath the [NYC statute],” the decide wrote.
Wednesday’s ruling may very well be legally important. Quite a few different alleged victims who’ve filed long-delayed abuse circumstances beneath the regulation in query — New York’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Safety Regulation – after it opened a two-year window for such lawsuits from March 1, 2023 to March 1, 2025.
Bellino sued in November, claiming she had suffered “extreme and everlasting emotional misery” over the incidents, which allegedly occurred when she was 17 and Tyler was 27. “Tyler used his energy, affect, and authority as a well known musician to sexually assault Plaintiff.”
In her criticism, Bellino claimed that she and a buddy had organized to fulfill Aerosmith in Manhattan. First, she stated that Tyler pushed her right into a telephone sales space and “caught his tongue down her throat” earlier than groping her and “humping her pretending to have intercourse with Plaintiff.” After she returned to a resort with the band later within the day, she claimed that Tyler “once more pinned Plaintiff in opposition to the wall” and forcibly kissed and groped her.
Tyler has not publicly commented on the lawsuit, however in court docket filings, his attorneys have stated he “vehemently denies” the allegations. Of their movement to dismiss the case, his attorneys argued Bellino couldn’t use the New York Metropolis newly-enacted statute to sue over “purported sexual misconduct that occurred almost half a century in the past.”
“Ms. Bellino’s try and advance a declare primarily based on legislative enactments a long time after the purported misconduct occurred is opposite to the legislative intent, statutory building, and elementary notions of particular person liberty and due course of embedded in each the state and federal constitutions,” Tyler’s attorneys wrote in a movement earlier this month.
Wednesday’s ruling from Choose Kaplan granted that movement, dismissing the lawsuit. However the decide stated Bellino might probably search to file an up to date model of her case; he gave her till subsequent month to request the proper to take action. Neither aspect instantly returned requests for touch upon Thursday.
The lawsuit was the second abuse case in opposition to Tyler lately. In 2022, the rock star was sued by Julia Holcomb, who claims that Tyler repeatedly assaulted her for 3 years beginning in 1973, when she was simply 16 years previous. Holcomb claims to be the woman Tyler referred to in his memoir, Does the Noise in My Head Hassle You?, when he wrote he “virtually took a teen bride” and satisfied her dad and mom to grant him guardianship over her.
Holcomb’s case, filed in Los Angeles beneath a distinct look-back statute, stays pending. Tyler has denied these allegations, too, and his attorneys are searching for to have the case dismissed.
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