Country music superstar Garth Brooks has been accused of rape and sexual harassment. In a lawsuit filed Thursday in California court, an anonymous former employee of Brooks’ accused the “Friends In Low Places” singer of raping her in a Los Angeles hotel room and subjecting her to a pattern of unwanted sexual advances for around two years, as reported by The New York Times.
The accuser was not named in the suit but was identified as a hair and makeup stylist who worked for Brooks and his wife, fellow country singer Trisha Yearwood, from 2017 through 2020.
According to NYT, litigation over the case actually began three weeks ago with an anonymous suit filed in Mississippi. The plaintiff in that suit was identified as John Doe, but was described in the filing as “a celebrity and public figure who resides in Tennessee.” In the suit, which lawyers for the anonymous accuser framed as a move to get ahead of things and silence her, the plaintiff alleged that a woman residing in Mississippi (“Jane Roe”) had made “false and outrageous allegations of sexual misconduct she claims occurred years ago.”
This week’s suit identifies Brooks as John Doe and characterized the Mississippi filing as “a blatant attempt to further control and bully his sexual assault victim by utilizing his multimillionaire resources to game the legal system.”
It goes on to allege that the woman, who had worked for Yearwood for years prior to working for Brooks, was at their home to work in 2019 when the country singer emerged from the shower with an erection and forced her hands onto his genitals. The suit claims that she rejected Brooks’ advances, but kept working for him because she was “experiencing financial difficulties.”
In May of the same year, the suit alleges that Jane Roe joined Brooks on a private plane to Los Angeles for a concert, but was surprised to find that they were the only two passengers. When they arrived, they checked into a hotel suite with only one bedroom, where Brooks allegedly stripped naked, overpowered the woman, and raped her. In the aftermath, she described feeling “debilitating pain in her neck and lower back” that caused her to seek treatment from an OB-GYN and contemplate suicide. Allegedly, Brooks continued to harass Jane Roe in person and over text until she moved to Mississippi in 2021. Overall, the suit alleges sexual assault, battery and gender violence.
Brooks vehemently denied the allegations, characterizing them as “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. It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face,” he said in a statement on Thursday. “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… I trust the system, I do not fear the truth, and I am not the man they have painted me to be.”