Garth Brooks accused of rape in new lawsuit
A woman who says she worked as a hair-and-makeup stylist for Garth Brooks alleged in a lawsuit filed Thursday that he raped her in a Los Angeles hotel in 2019.
The woman does not use her name and goes by Jane Roe in the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.
She said the assault occurred when she traveled with Brooks from Nashville to Los Angeles, where he was performing at a Grammy Awards tribute concert in October 2019.
The woman says in the lawsuit she had worked for Brooks' wife, country singer Trisha Yearwood, since 1999, and had started also working for Brooks in 2017.
In a statement provided to CBS News on Thursday night, Brooks said that he had filed his own lawsuit "anonymously" almost a month ago against the plaintiff for "extortion and defamation of character."
"For the last two months, I have been hassled to no end with threats, lies, and tragic tales of what my future would be if I did not write a check for many millions of dollars," Brooks said. "It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face. Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money. In my mind, that means I am admitting to behavior I am incapable of—ugly acts no human should ever do to another. We filed suit against this person nearly a month ago to speak out against extortion and defamation of character. We filed it anonymously for the sake of families on both sides. I want to play music tonight. I want to continue our good deeds going forward. It breaks my heart these wonderful things are in question now. I trust the system, I do not fear the truth, and I am not the man they have painted me to be."
According to the lawsuit filed by the woman Thursday, Brooks normally traveled with an entourage, but the two were alone on his private jet, and he booked just one hotel suite for both of them. The woman alleges that in the suite, he appeared naked in the doorway to the bedroom and raped her.
The suit says that he then proceeded as though nothing had happened and expected her to do his hair and makeup immediately after.
She alleges that earlier in 2019, when she was at Brooks' home, he had appeared naked in front of her, grabbed her hands, and put them on his genitals.
The lawsuit says that Brooks filed his preemptive lawsuit in federal court in Mississippi last month, in which both him and the woman are anonymous.
The woman's attorney, Douglas Wigdor, acknowledged Brooks' "preemptive complaint" in his own statement to CBS News.
"We applaud our client's courage in moving forward with her complaint against Garth Brooks," Wigdor said. "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. We are confident that Brooks will be held accountable for his actions and his 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 encourage others who may have been victimized to contact us as no survivor should suffer in silence."
The lawsuit did not state if the woman reported the alleged incident to the authorities. CBS News has also reached out to a representative of Yearwood for comment on the lawsuit.
In the lawsuit filed by Brooks, the plaintiff, going by John Doe, says the allegations are "wholly untrue" and that he first learned of them in July when she threatened to publicly sue him unless he gave her millions of dollars.
He asks a judge to stop the woman from "intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, and false light invasion of privacy."
The woman's suit also says Brooks exposed himself to her many other times and talked about sexual fantasies with her and sent her explicit text messages.
She said she was forced to keep working for Brooks because of financial hardship, which he knew about and took advantage of.
The 62-year-old Oklahoma-born Brooks was the biggest star in country music of the 1990s, with hits including "Friends in Low Places" and "The Thunder Rolls." He brought arena-rock theatrics to his concerts and a pop-music sensibility to his recordings. He had huge success that went beyond typical country audiences.
He married fellow country star Yearwood in 2005.