At least for the time being, Garth Brooks’ legal dispute with the woman who accused him of rape and sexual assault will continue to take place in California.
U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald has rejected the singer’s plea to have the case against him in the central district of California dismissed, according to court records that Fox News Digital was able to obtain.
To re-file in Mississippi, where she resides, Brooks’ team had looked for his accuser, a cosmetics artist who goes by the moniker Jane Roe.
However, the judge in California rejected Brooks’ move to dismiss, citing a “original action” that is still pending in another state.
According to the records, the decision states, “The Court determines the most appropriate course of action is to allow the Mississippi court to adjudicate Plaintiff’s equitable arguments in the first instance.”
Although the alleged rape and sexual assault occurred in California, Roe resides in Mississippi.
- Brooks filed a preemptive lawsuit in Mississippi on Sept. 13, more than two weeks before Roe filed her sexual assault suit on Oct. 3.
- In his lawsuit, Brooks used pseudonyms for both himself and his accuser, and requested that the case proceed with anonymity on both sides.
- On Oct. 8, Brooks filed an amendment using his real name and hers, asking for a judge to dismiss his original filing.
See Also: Timeline of Garth Brooks’s Sexual Assault Allegations
In mid-November, shortly after the lawsuit was successfully transferred from civil court, where Roe first filed, to federal court, Brooks filed his request to dismiss the California action. Roe’s lawyers argued that the lawsuit should remain in California after he requested to switch states. Because Mississippi lacks the anti-SLAPP provisions like California does (and, according to the Tennessee Bar Association, in Brooks’ native state of Tennessee), they accused him of forum shopping.
-
SLAPP lawsuits
are lawsuits intended to intimidate someone out of saying something critical in a court filing.
- Without anti-SLAPP laws, someone could face an expensive lawsuit just for filing charges.
Although she and Brooks have given differing stories of the precise duration of her employment, Roe was Brooks’ hair and makeup artist for a number of years. She also worked with Brooks’ wife, fellow singer Trisha Yearwood, for a long time.
Roe charges Brooks with numerous rapes and sexual assaults in her filing. She recounts two alleged incidents in 2019: one in which she claims he assaulted her in a hotel room in Los Angeles, and another later that year in which he allegedly touched her while grasping his crotch and making a sexual proposal.
Brooks disputes the allegations of verbal and physical assault made in her lawsuit.
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