Months after he was accused of sexual assault and abuse by two different women, country singer Jimmie Allen has filed counterclaims against both of his accusers.
via: Billboard
In documents filed Thursday (July 13) in Nashville federal court, Allen, 38, lodged his first formal responses to the two abuse lawsuits, which have seen the once-rising country star dropped from his label and removed from festival lineups. The first case claims he repeatedly assaulted an unnamed “Jane Doe” on his management team; the second claims he assaulted another woman in a Las Vegas hotel room and secretly recorded it.
Allen’s lawyers went beyond simply denying those allegations in Thursday’s filings, bringing a countersuit against each accuser and seeking unspecified monetary damages. In the case of Allen’s former day-to-day manager, the attorneys claim that she defamed him by making “deliberate, intentional, malicious, and willful” statements to Variety beyond what is included in the lawsuit. Variety broke the news of her lawsuit in early May.
“Throughout the Variety article, Jane Doe made several untruthful statements which painted Allen and Doe’s consensual affair as nonconsensual sexual misconduct,” his lawyers claim. “Allen’s reputation and relationships within the entertainment industry have also been severely damaged as a result Jane Doe’s statements in the Variety article.”
(Variety, which is owned by the same parent company as Billboard, is not named as a defendant or accused of any wrongdoing.)
In responding to the second lawsuit, in which the woman claims that Allen surreptitiously filmed their sexual encounter, his lawyers say that she had explicitly consented to the recording — and that she then unfairly took his phone with her when she left the hotel. In technical terms, they accuse her of “conversion,” a civil tort similar to theft that involves someone taking property that doesn’t belong to them.
“By taking his camera phone without permission, Jane Doe 2 wrongfully exerted a distinct act of dominion over Allen’s personal property,” his lawyers write.
In a statement to Billboard on Thursday, lead attorney for the accusers Elizabeth Fegan said that Allen’s responses had been expected, and that she her team were “eager to show the court abundant evidence” that would “prove that Jimmie Allen is a serial abuser and should be held accountable for his actions.”
“It is becoming increasingly common for perpetrators to countersue their victims, claiming defamation,” said Fegan, who previously represented alleged victims of Harvey Weinstein. “This is a concerning trend, one designed to convince victims that if they speak out, they will be the target of spurious litigation.”
In his own statement on the new filings, Allen told Billboard that he had “engaged with a legal team to proceed with an appropriate course of action,” saying he had done so in order to “protect my reputation and refute these claims that have caused severe damage to my family, mental health, and business.”
“As the son and brother of rape victims, and the father of daughters, these false claims are extremely hurtful to me and everyone around me,” Allen said. “These false allegations have caused me to lose a vast number of business and endorsement opportunities that I worked extremely hard for. These false allegations have also not only harmed me, but have caused severe financial damage to my band, my team, and their families.”
