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Garth Brooks accused of rape in new lawsuit
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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 Thursday that he raped her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2019.

The woman is not using her name and is referred to as Jane Roe in the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

She said the attack happened as 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 that she has worked for Brooks’ wife, country singer Trisha Yearwood, since 1999 and that she also started working for Brooks in 2017.

In a statement to CBS News on Thursday evening, Brooks said he filed his own lawsuit “anonymously” against the accuser nearly a month ago for “racketeering and defamation of character.”

“Over the past two months, I have been harassed endlessly with threats, lies and tragic stories about what my future would be if I did not write a multi-million dollar check,” Brooks said. “It was like waving a loaded gun in my face. Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money. In my mind, this means admitting to behavior that I am not capable of: ugly acts, not human. ” should ever do to anyone else. We filed suit against this person almost a month ago to speak out against extortion and defamation. We submitted it anonymously for the sake of the families on both sides. Tonight I want to continue our good deeds into the future. It breaks my heart that these wonderful things are now being questioned. I trust the system, I’m not afraid of the truth, and I’m not the man they made me out to be.”

Singer Garth Brooks
Singer Garth Brooks attends a reception for the 2022 Kennedy Center Awards hosted by President Biden at the White House on December 4, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images


According to the lawsuit the woman filed Thursday, Brooks normally traveled with an entourage, but the two were alone on his private jet and he booked only one hotel suite for the two of them. The woman claims he appeared naked in the bedroom doorway in the suite and raped her.

The suit states he then proceeded as if nothing had happened and expected her to do his hair and makeup immediately afterwards.

She claims that earlier in 2019, when she was at Brooks’ home, he appeared in front of her naked, grabbed her hands and placed them on his genitals.

The lawsuit states that Brooks filed his preemptive lawsuit last month in federal court in Mississippi, in which both he 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. “Today’s complaint shows that sexual predators exist not only in corporate America, Hollywood, and the rap and rock ‘n’ roll industries, but also in the world of country music. We are confident that Brooks will be held accountable for his actions and efforts. Silencing our client by filing a preemptive complaint in Mississippi was nothing more 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 say whether the woman reported the alleged incident to authorities. CBS News has also reached out to a representative for Yearwood for comment on the lawsuit.

In the lawsuit filed by Brooks, the accuser, who goes by the name John Doe, says the allegations are “completely false” and that he first heard about them in July when she threatened to publicly sue him unless he gave her millions of dollars.

He is asking a judge to restrain the woman from “intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation and false light invasion of privacy.”

The woman’s suit also states that Brooks exposed himself to her many other times, talked to her about sexual fantasies and sent her explicit text messages.

She said she was forced to continue working for Brooks because of financial problems, which he knew about and took advantage of.

Brooks, 62, was the biggest star in country music in the 1990s, with hits like “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 tremendous success beyond the typical country audience.

He married fellow countryman Yearwood in 2005.