Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler denies allegations that he sexually abused a minor in the 1970s.
In his initial response to the lawsuit, Tyler’s attorneys denied all allegations Julia Holcombwho sued in December over allegations that she was the person the singer’s memoir called almost his “teenage bride.”
The Response, a filing labeled “Response,” which is the standard first step for a defendant in any lawsuit, listed a wide range of possible defenses Tyler could employ. They implied that Holcomb had consented to Tyler’s alleged behavior or that he was immunized from her claims since he had been granted custody of her.
Tyler’s new file prompted a sharply worded response from Holcomb’s attorneys, who were particularly annoyed by the consent and custody claims.
“Never have we encountered a legal defense as revolting and potentially dangerous as that launched by Tyler and his attorneys this week,” Attorney said Jeff Anderson wrote in a press release in response to the filing. “We’re hoping Tyler’s mean gaslighting backfires.”
A representative for Tyler did not respond to a request for comment on the new filing or on Anderson’s testimony.
Holcomb’s allegations against Tyler are not new. She made similar allegations in a 2011 article published on the anti-abortion website LifesiteNewsand she made the same claims in 2020 during an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News.
But in December, she formalized those claims in a lawsuit filed in a Los Angeles court, alleging Tyler used his “power as a well-known musician and rock star” to “access, nurture, manipulate, exploit.” ‘ and sexually assaulted her for three years beginning in 1973 when she was just 16 years old.
The lawsuit repeatedly cited Tyler’s own memoir (Does the noise in my head bother you?), in which he explicitly referred to a relationship with an underage girl. “She was 16, she knew how to get mean, and there wasn’t a shred of it,” Tyler wrote in the passage cited in the lawsuit. “I was so in love I almost took a teenage bride.”
The lawsuit alleges that Tyler convinced Holcomb’s parents to give him guardianship over them – an allegation that was also accompanied by quoting from his memoir: “I went and slept at her parents’ house for a couple of nights, and her parents fell in love with me signed paper so I have custody so I won’t be arrested if I take her out of the country.”
On a technical note, Holcomb accused Tyler of sexual battery, sexual assault, and intentionally inflicting emotional distress. The case was filed just days before California’s Child Victims Act expired, which temporarily suspended the statute of limitations on sex abuse lawsuits to accommodate such year-long claims.
Read Tyler’s full legal response here:
English
العربية
Nederlands
Français
Deutsch
Italiano
日本語
한국어
Русский
Español
Svenska
Türkçe
اردو
Tiếng Việt