Marilyn Manson Settles Lawsuit Over Sexual Assault and Abuse Allegations Before Trial Begins
The settlement was reached on Wednesday in the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles
Marilyn Manson has reached a settlement agreement with a woman who accused him of rape, days before the trial was due to begin next week.
The anonymous woman alleged in a lawsuit filed in 2021 that Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, had raped her and deprived her of food, sleep and safety in 2011. However, the case was settled on Wednesday in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles according to reports from Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times and Billboard.
The suit was initially dismissed in 2021 due to the expiration of the statute of limitations on the claims, and refiled several weeks later, per Rolling Stone. Following the settlement this week, Manson’s lawyer Howard King shared a statement with PEOPLE.
“Brian is pleased that, just as previous lawsuits were abandoned without payment or settled for pennies on the dollar, this plaintiff has now agreed to drop her suit in exchange for an insurance payment representing a fraction of her demands and far less than the cost to Brian of proceeding to trial," King said. Details of the settlement have not been disclosed according to Rolling Stone.
According to Rolling Stone, the accuser, named as Jane Doe in the filing, claimed in the suit that Manson, 54, threatened to “bash her head in” should she report him. She also told the outlet that she was subject to various “threats” and “harassment” leading up to the settlement.
In a statement to the outlet Doe said, “I was fully prepared for trial and never in a million years thought I would ever settle, but over the past two-and-a-half years I have silently endured threats, bullying, harassment and various forms of intimidation that have intensified over the past few weeks.”
She accused Manson and his team of carrying out intimidation tactics after he attended her deposition. “I was forced to answer seven hours of aggressive questioning with him staring at me from across the table,” Doe continued. “I’ve been told that this almost never happens, as it’s cruel, and that a main reason for it would be to intimidate and inflict emotional distress on a victim.”
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“I never cared about money and only ever wanted justice, but if we had gone to trial, I could have lost my right to anonymity and been victim-blamed on a large and public scale,” she told Rolling Stone. “Most importantly I could have risked losing the freedom to tell my story, and that is worth more than anything in the world.”
“If any other victims are reading this, please know that you are loved and supported even if it doesn’t feel that way, and that in spite of everything I’ve been through I don’t for one second regret speaking up," Doe added.
In response to Jane Doe’s comments about wanting to have the freedom to tell her story, King shared the following statement with PEOPLE: “A little honesty is long overdue. If this individual had actually wanted to share her story, she could have done so in front of a jury next week. Instead, as soon as the facts came out, showing that her case was meritless, she settled for pennies on the dollar.”
King continued, “As a result, since we wholeheartedly support her freedom to tell her story, we would be thrilled, with her permission, to release the full transcript of her deposition under oath, including the provocative emails and materials she sent to Mr. Warner after the alleged assaults, so that everyone else can know the truth as well.”
According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE in 2021 when the case was originally filed and dismissed, the woman alleged that Manson had raped and sexually abused her multiple times during their 2011 relationship. She said that she had "repressed" her memories until February of that year when a number of women came forward to publicly accuse Manson of physical and sexual abuse.
Related: Esmé Bianco and Marilyn Manson Agree to Settle 2021 Sexual Assault Lawsuit
However, a Los Angeles judge dismissed the case at the time, after ruling that Doe had made claims in her lawsuit that were "not sufficient to invoke the delayed discovery rule" to get around the lapsed statute of limitations period.
According to a report from Rolling Stone from Sept. 2021, Doe then refiled the complaint several weeks after it was dismissed.
The settlement of the case this week comes after several accusers have come forward in the past two years against Manson for sexual abuse. In April 2021, actress Esmé Bianco became the first to file a civil suit against Manson over these allegations. The suit was settled in January.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
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