Steven Tyler.Photo: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic
Steven Tyleris denying all allegations stated in a recent lawsuit thataccused him of sexual assaultof a minor.
In his response to the lawsuit, which the Aerosmith lead singer, 75, filed last week in a Los Angeles County Superior Court, he stated a lengthy set of defenses to the claims against him. Meanwhile, plaintiff Julia Misley’s lawyer suggests that the rocker is simply “gaslighting” her.
A representative for Tyler did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Steven Tyler.Kevin Mazur/Getty
His response comes three months after Misley — who had a sexual relationship with Tyler when she was a teen in the ’70s — filed a lawsuit against Tyler for sexual assault, sexual battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Misley filed the lawsuit just days before theDec. 31 deadlinefor California’s Child Victims Act, which lifted the statute of limitations on reporting childhood sexual abuse crimes.
In the complaint, Misley — who “directly quotes” from Tyler’s memoir — alleges that Tyler was able to convince her mother to grant guardianship over her when she was 16 years old, which provided a means for the star to allegedly have a sexual relationship with her. She alleges that she was “powerless to resist” Tyler, who had “power, fame and substantial financial ability.”
In the memoir, which does not name Misley, Tyler wrote that he “almost took a teen bride” because “her parents fell in love with me, signed a paper over for me to have custody, so I wouldn’t get arrested if I took her out of state. I took her on tour with me.”
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Misley says she eventually left Tyler and returned home to Portland after the abortion, married, and became a devout Catholic.
In a statement from Misley’s attorney Jeff Anderson, he called Tyler’s response “gaslighting” and said he was using “a sham legal guardianship to avoid prosecution for sex crimes.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go torainn.org.
source: people.com
