Tommy Lee , drummer for Mötley Crüe , has obtained a temporary victory in a controversial lawsuit related to his name. The case had already been reported by Wikimetal in 2023 .
On May 6, 2024, after Lee's attorney, A. Sasha Frid , argued that the allegations did not qualify for reopening under the Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act.
The decision was made by Judge Holly J. Fujie of the Los Angeles Superior Court, who granted the woman, identified by the generic name Jane Doe, 20 days to amend her complaint against the drummer.
According to the NME website , the alleged sexual assault took place in 2003. The woman claims that Tommy lured her onto his personal helicopter under false pretenses.
Remember the helicopter case?
In the lawsuit, Doe recounts that she traveled from San Diego to Van Nuys with David Martz , Lee's personal pilot. After landing, Lee joined them, and the two men consumed alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine. Doe accuses Lee of sexually assaulting her, groping her, forcibly kissing her, penetrating her with his fingers, and attempting to force her to perform oral sex.
Jane Doe claims to have suffered severe emotional, physical, and psychological distress as a result of the alleged assault. She states that she did not report the incident in 2003 because she believed it to be an isolated event and feared that the police would not take her seriously.
Judge Fujie also provisionally dismissed all four causes of action: sexual assault, gender-based violence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligence, due to a lack of evidence of a cover-up. Jane Doe is seeking an unspecified amount in damages.
What does the Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act mean under American law?
The American law mentioned in the text, known as the Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act, requires the plaintiff to prove that there was a cooperative effort to conceal evidence of the alleged sexual assault. The law aims to allow the reopening of cases where victims were previously unable to report the abuse due to an institutional or collaborative cover-up.
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