Garth Brooks is being accused of sexual assault and battery by a former stylist. CNN reports that a woman identified as “Jane Roe” has filed a lawsuit in California, alleging that the Grammy-winning singer raped her in 2019 on a work trip, while she worked as a stylist for him and his wife, Trisha Yearwood.
According to the complaint, Roe had been working as a hair and makeup stylist for Yearwood since 1999 and stepped in to work with Brooks in 2017. Two years later, in 2019, she says that she accompanied him to Los Angeles for a Grammy tribute performance taping, traveling by way of Brooks’ private jet.
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“Usually there were others on Brooks’ private jet but this time, Ms. Roe and Brooks were the only two passengers,” the complaint states. “Once in Los Angeles at the hotel, Ms. Roe could not believe that Brooks had booked a hotel suite with one bedroom and she did not have a separate room.”
Once the pair arrived at the hotel suite, Roe claims Brooks “appeared in the doorway to the bedroom, completely naked,” and that she felt “trapped in the room alone with” him.
TMZ reports that Roe alleges Brooks “dragged her onto a bed in another room, where he overpowered her and raped her, including allegedly holding “her 5-foot-frame by her ankles and dangled her upside down as he penetrated her vagina, slamming his penis inside her so hard she felt as if she were breaking in two.”
Roe also claims that, after the alleged rape, Brooks went on to speak sexually to her, as well as physically groping her, and making “repeated remarks” about “having a threesome” with Yearwood. She adds that, in addition to sexual assault and battery, Brooks repeatedly exposed his genitals and buttocks to her, talking about sex and shared sexual fantasies, regularly changing his clothing in front of her, and sent sexually explicit text messages.
The stylist also alleges another incidient the same year when she was at Brooks’ home for work and he walked out of the shower naked in front of her. She claims that he then “grabbed her hands and forced them” onto his genitals, while using sexually explicit and vulgar language towards her.
In a complaint as plaintiff John Doe, Brooks refutes Roe’s accusations, and claims that her attorney sent him a “confidential” demand letter alleging sexual misconduct after he declined Roe’s request for “salaried employment and medical benefits.”
“Defendant’s allegations are not true,” Brooks’ previous lawsuit states. “Defendant is well aware, however, of the substantial, irreparable damage such false allegations would do to Plaintiff’s well-earned reputation as a decent and caring person, along with the unavoidable damage to his family and the irreparable damage to his career and livelihood that would result if she made good on her threat to ‘publicly file’ her fabricated lawsuit.”
Roe’s attorneys told CNN that Brooks’ “efforts to silence our client through the filing of a preemptive complaint in Mississippi was nothing other than an act of desperation and attempted intimidation.”
“We are confident that Brooks will be held accountable for his actions,” attorneys Douglas H. Wigdor, Jeanne M. Christensen, and Hayley Baker said in a statement to CNN. “We applaud our client’s courage in moving forward with her complaint against Garth Brooks. The complaint filed today demonstrates that sexual predators exist not only in corporate America, Hollywood and in the rap and rock and roll industries but also in the world of country music.”
Brooks had previously denied his accuser’s claims, though representatives for the country superstar did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment in response to Roe’s new lawsuit.
Prior to Roe’s filing and as first reported by CNN, an anonymous celebrity plaintiff – now disclosed to be Brooks – had tried to block Roe from publicly repeating her allegations and fiercely denied the claims, according to a previous complaint he had filed as a “John Doe.”
CNN has also reached out to representatives for Yearwood for comment.