Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler accused of sexually assaulting teen model in 1975
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Theo Wargo/Getty Images Steven Tyler
Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler is being sued for allegedly sexually assaulting a teenage model in the mid-1970s.
A complaint filed Thursday in New York claims that Tyler "used his power, influence, and authority, as a well-known musician to sexually assault" the accuser, Jeanne Bellino, in approximately 1975, when she was around 17 years old. This marks the second time in the past year that Tyler, 75, has been accused in a lawsuit of assaulting a teen during a decade when Aerosmith was ascending to rock stardom.
Representatives for Tyler didn't immediately respond to EW's requests for comment Thursday.
According to Bellino's complaint, she was working for a children's modeling agency in the mid-'70s and would frequently share rides with another model friend to travel from their homes in Queens to gigs in Manhattan. This friend arranged for the two teen models to meet Aerosmith in Manhattan after a modeling event, the lawsuit says, and they linked up with Tyler and his entourage on 6th Avenue.
Bellino detailed the alleged encounter in a video statement played at a press conference held by her legal team. "I was assaulted in a phone booth in broad daylight in a phone booth by Steven Tyler," she said. "He's an angry person inside because, at that time, right before he assaulted me, I laughed at his lyrics, apparently made him angry. I didn't understand, I wasn't laughing at him. I just thought, 'Oh, okay, that was the lyric, that makes sense,' and I laughed."
She continued: "He stuck his tongue down my throat, and his friends are looking outside, my friend was also watching, people walking by were watching. And he started groping me, I couldn't say help because I couldn't talk, he had me pinned against the phone, and I remember the faces of two men that were walking by just stopped and stared. I was clearly struggling. Nobody said stop, nobody said, 'Get off of her!'"
Bellino's complaint alleges that Tyler, who would have been in his late 20s at the time, "put his hands upon her body, her breasts, her buttocks, and her genitals, moving and removing clothing and pinning her against the wall of the phone booth."
"It was shocking and mortifying," Bellino said in her video statement. "That was my first sexual experience with a boy or man."
Because Bellino had arranged to go home with her friend, she did not "have a means or manner of transportation or the money to go home," the complaint says, so she went to the Warwick Hotel with Tyler, his entourage, and her friend. Bellino alleges that Tyler assaulted her again inside the hotel, and that she only escaped with the assistance of the hotel's doorman, who helped her get in a cab after Tyler went to his room.
Bellino said in her video statement that she stopped eating after the encounter, causing her to faint and be taken to the hospital at one point.
Tyler was previously accused of sexually assaulting another woman, Julia Misley, in the 1970s, when she was a teen, according to a lawsuit filed in California late last year. The singer has denied those allegations.
At the press conference Thursday, Bellino's lawyer Jeff Anderson said his client was inspired to go public with her accusations against Tyler after reading about Misley's case.
"This suit is not just about the predation of Steven Tyler that we know began in the early 70s, but is about the industry that has continued to protect him," Anderson said. "The industry, the entertainment and music industry, the bandmates, the managers, the agents, the top executives at the recording companies, all together making conscious choices to protect predators like Steven Tyler."
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