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Garth Brooks Breaks Silence Amid Rape Allegation From His and Trisha Yearwood's Makeup Artist
Garth Brooks’ latest legal motion has been unsuccessful.
After the country singer sought to dismiss a case of sexual assault filed against him by a woman identified as Jane Roe, the United States District Court in California has temporarily denied his motion.
In Dec. 16 documents reviewed by E! News, the court details that Brooks’ motion was “denied without prejudice,” or temporarily denied, pending the outcome of another lawsuit against Roe filed in Mississippi Sept. 13.
Indeed, the lawsuit against Roe in the aforementioned state cites “defamation,” “false light invasion of privacy” and “intentional infliction of emotional distress through outrageous conduct.” Although Roe—who has been identified in the documents as a former makeup and hairstylist to Brooks, 62, and his wife of nearly 20 years Trisha Yearwood—is listed as the defendant in the case, the plaintiff is identified as John Doe in the documents, and is noted to be a resident of the state of Tennessee.
Brooks previously told E! News he is the John Doe identified in the case, saying he chose the alias “for the sake of families on both sides.”
The California district court’s latest decision also included a denial of Brooks’ filing for an “in camera review” of documents in order to dismiss the lawsuit—as “the court does not deem it necessary” to review the documents at all prior to issuing its final ruling.
E! News has reached out to attorneys for Brooks and Roe regarding the latest court decision but has not yet heard back.
Brooks had filed the motion to dismiss the case Nov. 8, just a week after filing to move the case to a federal court Nov. 1. (For her part, Roe filed an opposition to Brooks’ motion on Nov. 22.)
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In the Nov. 1 filing, obtained by E! News, Brooks sought to reassign the case on a basis of “diversity of citizenship jurisdiction,” as Brooks and the plaintiff in the sexual assault case currently reside in different states—and neither in California.
The initial sexual assault lawsuit against Brooks was filed on Oct. 3 and accuses the “Friends in Low Places” singer of sexual assault and battery on multiple occasions in 2019.
Since the case came to light, Brooks—who shares daughters Taylor, 32, August, 30, and Allie, 28, with ex Sandra Mahl—had denied all of the allegations and alleged he had been pressured into offering “hush money” to the plaintiff prior to the filing.
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“For the last two months, I have been hassled to no end with threats, lies, and tragic tales of what my future would be if I did not write a check for many millions of dollars," Brooks said in a statement to E! News at the time. “It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face."
He continued, “Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money. In my mind, that means I am admitting to behavior I am incapable of—ugly acts no human should ever do to another.”
Roe’s attorneys later responded to Brooks’ claims, lauding their client for seeking justice.
“We applaud our client’s courage in moving forward with her complaint against Garth Brooks," the lawyers said in a statement to NBC News. "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."
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