NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Garth Brooks has filed a lawsuit to obtain relief following a accusation of sexual assault and battery by a former hairstylist and makeup artist.
Brooks' lawsuit claims that his accuser’s "ongoing attempted extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress through outrageous conduct including the publication and threatened wider publication of false allegations of sexual misconduct that would irreparably harm [his] reputation, family, career and livelihood".
In the lawsuit, Brooks claims that she defamed him by "intentionally" publishing her July 17 letter. He added that the publications were made with malice, ill will and for the purpose of extorting an unwarranted payment from Plaintiff.
Brooks is requesting a trial along with a declaratory judgment that the allegations are untrue as well as compensatory and punitive damages.
The accuser did not use her name and goes by Jane Roe in the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court last week.
In her lawsuit, she stated that she worked for Brooks' wife, country singer Trisha Yearwood, since 1999, and had started also working for Brooks in 2017.
She said the assault occurred when she traveled from Nashville to Los Angeles with Brooks, who was performing with soul singer Sam Moore at a Grammy Awards tribute to Moore in October 2019.
Brooks forcefully denied the allegations in a statement.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at kelly.broderick@newschannel5.com.
For people of my generation, in our younger days we spent part of our weekends watching music shows like American Bandstand and Soul Train. That was before the age of music videos. Several years before Soul Train was syndicated out of Chicago, another syndicated R&B show was taped in Nashville at NewsChannel 5. Night Train aired in the 60s and included what may have been the first TV appearance for legendary guitarist Jimmy Hendrix. Forrest Sanders has another great look back at station history.
-Lelan Statom
