Woman Files Lawsuit Against Marilyn Manson Saying He Sexually Assaulted Her As A Teen In The 1990s
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Disgraced shock rocker Marilyn Manson is facing a new lawsuit by a woman who claims he sexually assaulted her when she was a teen in the 1990s.
Marilyn Manson, whose given name is Brian Warner, has been sued in Nassau County, New York — the western part of Long Island. Warner is named as a defendant in the suit filed on behalf of a Jane Doe, alongside his former labels, Interscope and Nothing Records (an imprint subsidiary of Interscope founded by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor that no longer exists as an ongoing entity), Rolling Stone and NBC News reported. The plaintiff is suing Warner for sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and the labels for negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other charges.
The woman claims that she first met the rocker, now 54, outside his tour bus after a concert in Dallas in 1995, when she was 16 and he would have been 26. In the suit, she alleges that he invited her onto the tour bus, sexually assaulted her and then threatened to kill her and her family if she told anyone, NBC News reported.
The woman said that she started abusing alcohol and drugs after the sexual assault, and stayed in touch with the musician, who groomed her and ultimately convinced her to travel to New Orleans to see him perform, where he assaulted her again.
Marilyn Manson arrives at 'The Art Of Elysium's 13th Annual Celebration January 4, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. Photo: Getty Images
Manson was on tour for most of 1995, promoting his debut album, "Portrait of an American Family," in a similarly named tour in the first half of the year, and then in a series of concerts titled "Smells Like Children." He performed in both Dallas and New Orleans once during the first tour, and then twice in New Orleans and once in Dallas during the second.
According to the woman's lawsuit, she stayed in touch with the band for several years after 1995 and, at age 18, ultimately ended up dating a member of Nine Inch Nails — whose lead singer, Reznor, owned Manson's then-label Nothing — after she turned 18 (which would have been in 1997), NBC News reported. Her then-boyfriend, who would've been 30 when they started dating and had credits on "Portrait of an American Family," "Smells Like Children" and 1996's "Antichrist Superstar," eventually convinced her to move to Los Angeles.
While living in Los Angeles at the boyfriend's convincing, the woman again became entangled with Marilyn Manson's band after attending one of the artist's Los Angeles concerts, according to Rolling Stone. (In March 1999, Manson performed two shows in the L.A. area with the Courtney Love-fronted band, Hole. The woman's boyfriend had credits on that band's 1998 album, "Celebrity Skin.") There, a band member convinced her to attend the concert in Dallas about 10 days later and the subsequent solo show in New Orleans two days after — where she went backstage and saw Manson again.
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There, she claims in the lawsuit, Manson again plied her with drugs and alcohol and began to groom and abuse her again. She traveled with the band through the remainder of the tour, which ended in late April, and says that Manson, among other acts, "often coerced Plaintiff to have sex with him and other band members or his assistant at the same time" — including during his tour date in Nassau County, New York.
The lawsuit alleges that Interscope and Nothing Records "knew or should have known that Defendant Warner was habitually and routinely engaged in sexual misconduct with young adults and underage children throughout the country."
“Sexual predators in the music industry don’t act alone," Karen Barth Menzies, an attorney for the plaintiff, told NBC News. "In order for there to be meaningful changes in the music industry, we have to do more than just hold the predators accountable. We have to force the record companies to acknowledge the crimes they allow to occur, and in some instances facilitate, and we have to force them to take responsibility for permitting and profiting from outrageous criminal behavior.”
Manson, through his lawyers, denied the woman's allegations.
“Brian Warner does not know this individual and has no recollection of ever having met her 28 years ago. He certainly was never intimate with her," attorney Howard King said in a statement to NBC News. "She has been shopping her fabricated tale to tabloids and on podcasts for more than two years."
He also called the allegations "vicious lies" and "a shakedown."
It is, however, not the first time Manson has faced allegations of violence against women.
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"Game of Thrones" actress Esmé Bianco sued the rocker in 2021 alleging he had repeatedly violently sexual assaulted her, along with committing other abuses, from 2009 to 2013. The two settled the lawsuit last week, NBC News reported.
His former assistant, Ashley Walters, sued him in May 2021, alleging sexual harassment, abuse, sexual battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and wrongful termination. The case was dismissed in May 2022, after a judge determined that the statute of limitations had expired. An appeal is also expected to be formally dismissed after it missed a deadline in the 2nd District Court of Appeals, NBC News reported.
His ex, Ashley Morgan Smithline, sued Manson in June 2021, alleging sexual assault, sexual battery and human trafficking, NBC News reported. The case was dismissed without prejudice this month, according to People, after Smithline fired her lawyer and failed to hire new representation or file new paperwork to represent herself.
Manson, who has repeatedly denied all allegations of sexual abuse, is suing his ex-fiancée Evan Rachel Wood for defamation, following her public statements that Manson had been physically and sexually abusive during their relationship in the early 2000s. She never filed a lawsuit against him and those claims are pending.
