Garth Brooks sued for alleged rape and sexual assault

A makeup artist sued Garth Brooks on Thursday, saying the country star raped her in a hotel room and on other occasions subjected her to unwanted sexual behavior, including sending offensive text messages and groping her breasts.

The woman, identified in the lawsuit as Jane Roe, also accused Brooks of exposing himself to her on multiple occasions. She claims the trauma of the rape was so severe that she considered suicide.

“Brooks desperately wants to prevent his millions of fans from knowing about the terrible things he said and did to a young employee who did nothing to deserve such treatment,” the lawsuit says.

According to the complaint, Brooks filed a preemptive action against the woman in federal court in Mississippi last month.

The plaintiff in that lawsuit claims the woman threatened to ruin his reputation by filing a sexual abuse lawsuit unless he gave her a multimillion-dollar payout.

The federal lawsuit was filed anonymously and described the plaintiff only as a “celebrity and public figure who resides in Tennessee.” The plaintiff, John Doe, alleges attempts at extortion, defamation and infliction of emotional distress.

“The defendant’s allegations are not true,” the lawsuit states. “The publication of these false allegations by the defendant was not a privilege but was done with malice, malice and the improper purpose of extorting an unwarranted payment from the plaintiff.”

The lawsuit, filed on September 13, seeks an injunction preventing her from continuing her “extortionist behavior” and damages.

The woman is represented by Douglas Wigdor, who has filed numerous #MeToo lawsuits against Harvey Weinstein and other powerful figures.

“We applaud our client’s courage in moving forward with her complaint against Garth Brooks,” Wigdor and his co-counsels Jeanne Christensen and Hayley Baker said in a statement. “Today's complaint shows that sexual predators exist not only in corporate America, Hollywood, and the rap and rock and roll industries, but also in the world of country music. We are confident that Brooks will be held accountable for his actions and that his efforts to silence our client by filing a preemptive lawsuit in Mississippi were nothing other than an act of desperation and intimidation.”

The woman states that in 1999 she began working for Trisha Yearwood, Brooks' wife, as a makeup artist and hairdresser. She claims that she began working for Brooks in 2017 and did so more frequently in 2019 when she was in financial trouble.

The lawsuit alleges she was at Brooks' home when he came out of the shower naked with an erection. She claims Brooks forced her to touch his penis and forced her to perform oral sex. She refused but continued to work for him.

In May 2019, she claims Brooks traveled to Los Angeles for a Grammy tribute and booked a hotel where they would both stay. She claims Brooks forcibly raped her in the hotel room.

Afterwards, she claimed Brooks often discussed sexual fantasies in front of her, sent her lascivious text messages and stared at her breasts. She claims he pressured her to open her shirt so he could grope her breasts and then masturbate.

The woman filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles state court under the state's Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act.