Rolling Stone is reporting that a California Judge dismissed a sexual assault lawsuit against Tommy Lee on Monday, but it’s not over. The judge said the Jane Doe plaintiff now has 20 days to try again with an amended complaint that will only survive if it includes new alleged facts showing there was “concerted effort” to conceal evidence the Mötley Crüe drummer sexually battered her in a helicopter cockpit in 2003.
The judge sided with Lee after the rocker’s lawyer argued that the decades-old claims didn’t qualify for revival under the law the Jane Doe plaintiff used when she filed her original lawsuit last December. The law, known as the Sexual Abuse and Cover Up Accountability Act, requires that plaintiffs show that some type of “legal entity” engaged in a cooperative effort to hide evidence of their alleged sexual assault. (The one-year “lookback window” for filing claims under the law closed on December 31, 2023.)
In his comments to the court, Lee’s lawyer argued that Jane Doe wrote in her initial complaint that Lee was already famous for his “salacious and hedonistic conduct” at the time of the alleged helicopter attack. “That would obviate any ability for a coverup. You can’t have a coverup when the plaintiff alleges that this alleged ‘salacious’ conduct was known to everybody,” Lee’s lawyer A. Sasha Frid said.
“The court had its own questions about that,” Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Holly J. Fujie said in response. “However, this is officially our first look at the pleading, and we will almost always grant one opportunity to amend.”
In her written ruling, the judge said that the Jane Doe “failed to assert facts to support the ‘coverup’ requirement.” She also questioned whether the plaintiff will be able to show the necessary element that a legal entity covered Lee’s actions in 2003. Lee claims his company, Mayhem Touring Inc., was suspended in February 2002. The plaintiff, meanwhile, alleges Mayhem was merely delinquent, not suspended, so it was still an operable entity at the time of the underlying events.
Read the full report at RollingStone.com.
Mötley Crüe's new single, "Dogs Of War", is out now. The official video for the song, created by director/producer/animator Nick DenBoer, can be viewed below. Also available is behind the scenes footage and an official lyric video.
