Backstreet Boy Nick Carter has been sued for sexual assault and sexual battery by Melissa Schuman, a former member of pop group Dream.
Schuman and her authorized workforce filed the civil go well with on Tuesday within the Los Angeles Superior Courtroom, with the 2000s lady group performer alleging that Carter used his standing and platform as an “worldwide multiplatinum recording pop star” to “groom, manipulate, exploit, and sexually assault” her. It’s the second go well with filed in opposition to Carter within the final six months, with one other lady, Shannon “Shay” Ruth, additionally alleging that he assaulted her when she was 17 on the Backstreet Boys’ tour bus in the course of the band’s 2001 Black & Blue tour.
Schuman alleges that Carter assaulted her at his Santa Monica residence in 2003 whereas they had been working as co-stars within the teen horror movie The Hole. Based on the lawsuit, whereas filming, Carter invited her over to his residence, with the duo joined by a male good friend of the singer and a feminine good friend of her personal. Carter then allegedly gave Schuman alcohol and put a drug “like flunitrazepam” into her drink earlier than taking her by means of varied rooms within the residence, together with a rest room and a number of bedrooms.
There he allegedly compelled himself on her and carried out sexual acts, together with vaginal penetration, with out her consent, along with forcing her to carry out acts on him beneath concern of bodily hurt.
In an announcement, Liane Okay. Wakayama, lawyer for Carter, denied the allegations, stating that “Schuman has been peddling this story for a few years, however her allegation was false when she first made it again in 2017 — and it nonetheless is.” She added that Schuman has been “plotting to break, defame and extort Nick, his associates, his buddies and his household” and referred to as her lawsuit “each predictable and pathetic.
“However this PR stunt received’t shake Nick from his dedication to carry Ms. Schuman and her co-conspirators to account for the immeasurable ache and struggling their extortionate conduct has induced,” the assertion concluded.
Within the go well with and in a November 2017 weblog put up the place Schuman first publicly documented her allegations, the singer mentioned she reported the incident when it first occurred, together with to her expertise supervisor, in addition to her household, therapist, roommate and a former co-star. She and her reps, in keeping with the lawsuit, even labored to create distance on the movie’s set between her and Carter. Following the alleged assault, Schuman tried to maintain her distance from Carter, however per the lawsuit, he harassed her shortly after.
That included calling her repeatedly on the telephone, and at one level referring to her as a “manipulative bitch” when she requested him in regards to the incident throughout a telephone dialog. He additionally allegedly tried to contact her by means of a shared music supervisor, who Schuman mentioned she didn’t understand till later “was an in depth private good friend” of Carter when he abruptly “stopped working together with her as a consumer.”
Earlier than the alleged 2003 assault, Schuman’s go well with claims she and Carter had beforehand come into contact whereas she was taking pictures a video with Dream. She was 16 on the time when the Backstreet Boys singer, then 21, indicated that Schuman was “cute” by means of their respective groups, who allegedly tried to arrange a staged romance between the 2 pop stars.
Based on Schuman’s go well with and her weblog put up, her resolution to not converse out publicly or go to the police on the time of the alleged 2003 assault got here after being “extremely discouraged” attributable to Carter having “one of the vital energy litigators within the nation,” and that “coming ahead may spoil her profession.” The singer has repeatedly mentioned her resolution to talk out in regards to the allegations was sparked by one other lady who claimed she was assaulted by Carter in 2017 amid the beginnings of the #MeToo Motion.
Carter beforehand denied Schuman’s allegations after they had been made in 2017, stating that Schuman had “by no means expressed to me whereas we had been collectively or at any time since that something we did was not consensual,” in keeping with Rolling Stone.
In February 2018, Schuman filed a report with the Santa Monica Police Division, however the L.A. County District Lawyer’s Workplace declined to prosecute the matter as a result of statute of limitations having expired in 2013.
Schuman can be concerned within the sexual battery go well with filed in Nevada final December in opposition to Carter. In that case, Shannon Ruth — a now-39-year-old lady with autism and cerebral palsy — alleges that in 2001, when she was 17, Carter picked her out of a lineup of followers and introduced her again to the group’s tour bus after a present in Tacoma, Washington. There, he allegedly gave her a drink that tasted alcoholic and proceeded, with out Ruth’s consent, to carry out varied intercourse acts.
Following the assault, Ruth claimed that Carter turned “nasty and threatening,” utilizing ableist language and leaving bruises on her arm. Ruth’s lawsuit additionally claims Carter sexually assaulted three different girls, in keeping with Rolling Stone. In response to that go well with, Carter sued Ruth for defamation, naming Schuman and her father, Jerome Schuman, as co-defendants.
The allegations in Ruth’s lawsuit share similarities to the alleged assault described in Schuman’s. Carter and his then-legal consultant Michael Holtz denied Ruth’s allegations, calling the alleged rape of Ruth “an incident that supposedly came about greater than 20 years in the past” that “just isn’t solely legally meritless but additionally solely unfaithful.” In March, a Nevada decide dominated Carter’s defamation counterclaim in opposition to Ruth and the Schumans may proceed, Billboard reported.
