A U.S. judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit accusing Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler of sexually assaulting a former teenage model twice in one day in Manhattan nearly 50 years ago.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan said Jeanne Bellino waited too long to sue the 75-year-old Tyler, who has "vehemently" denied her allegations, under a New York City law protecting victims of gender-motivated violence. The judge said Bellino did not qualify for a two-year window to pursue claims that would otherwise extend beyond statutes of limitations, because she did not allege that Tyler's conduct posed a "serious risk of physical injury."
And in a ruling that could affect other cases, Kaplan said two state laws, the Child Victims Act and Adult Survivors Act, preempted Bellino's claim, "substantially for the reasons" given by Tyler's lawyers. The lawyers said those laws, whose windows to sue have expired, "occupy the field regarding the revival of claims derived from state penal sexual assault law," and Bellino showed a "lack of diligence" by not suing under the Child Victims Act.
A lawyer for Bellino did not immediately respond to requests for comment. David Long-Daniels, a lawyer for Tyler, said: "We agree with the judge's reasoning, and are grateful for this result on behalf of our client."
Bellino, a former child model claimed to have met Tyler in New York in the summer of 1975 when she was 17, alleged in the suit that Tyler, then around 27, violently assaulted her twice the only day they’d encountered one another.
Bellino alleges that she met Tyler after a friend had arranged for them to meet Aerosmith at the Warwick Hotel following a fashion show Bellino was working in Manhattan. After Bellino and her friend met Tyler and several unnamed members of his entourage, they all walked down Sixth Avenue together. While walking, Bellino claims she asked Tyler a question about a song lyric, which frustrated Tyler, leading to him forcing her into a phone booth.
“While holding her captive, Tyler stuck his tongue down her throat, and put his hands upon her body, her breasts, her buttocks, and her genitals, moving and removing clothing and pinning her against the wall of the phone booth,” the suit alleges. “As Tyler was mauling and groping Plaintiff, he was humping her pretending to have sex with Plaintiff. Others stood by outside the phone booth laughing and as passersby watched and witnessed, nobody in the entourage intervened.”
Bellino further alleges in the suit that “Tyler’s penis was erect and it was evident to her as he rubbed it against her that he was not wearing underwear and wearing thin pants.” Eventually, the suit says, she freed herself and left the phone booth after raising up her knee and pulling on Tyler’s hair. She allegedly ran out of the phone booth “in shock and fear.”
