Marilyn Manson Accuser Gets Trial Date for Revived Claims of ‘Horrific’ Abuse
The artist and personal assistant who claims Marilyn Manson whipped her, threw plates at her and sexually assaulted her received a trial date Tuesday for her previously dismissed lawsuit that was revived on appeal.
Ashley Walters is now scheduled to face Manson, whose legal name is Brian Warner, at a jury trial set to begin June 2, 2025, a Los Angeles County judge ruled. The judge ordered the trial after Walters’ lawyer, James Vagnini, told the court that the parties were “not successful at resolving the case” during a mediation last December.
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“We are happy that the delays are behind us and that we will have an opportunity to depose Mr. Warner and present all the facts to a jury next year,” Walters’ lawyer James Vagnini said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “We are confident they will acknowledge the harm done to Ms. Walters and deliver a resounding message to all survivors of such terrible abuse.”
Lawyers for Warner did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. In a court filing last month, the lawyers wrote that Warner “specifically denies that he assaulted, battered, harassed, or discriminated against plaintiff.”
Walters first sued Warner in 2021. She alleges his “horrific” abuse took place during a year she worked as the musician’s personal assistant between 2010 and 2011. Walters claims Warner bit her ear while forcing her hand into his underwear. She claims he also whipped her, threw dishes at her, pushed her into a wall, broke down doors to get to her, charged at her and forced her to stand on a chair for 12 hours.
Warner and his lawyers got a judge to toss her case in May 2022 by arguing her claims were too old to pursue. But a tribunal with California’s Second Appellate District revived the lawsuit in December, reversing the lower court ruling and sending the case back for trial. The appellate judges said Walters adequately invoked the “delayed discovery” rule, which postpones the starting clock for statutes of limitations in cases where victims bury painful memories.
Warner, 55, previously denied similar claims of abuse from more than a dozen women. In September, he reached a private settlement with a Jane Doe accuser who alleged he brutally raped her in 2011. The Doe accuser claimed Warner also deprived her of food and sleep during a dating relationship and that he threatened to “bash her head in” if she reported him.
The September deal followed after Warner reached a separate settlement with Game of Thrones star Esmé Bianco in January 2023. Bianco had alleged Warner raped and battered her. Former accuser Ashley Morgan Smithline let her lawsuit end in default last year and formally recanted her allegations against Warner.
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