Marilyn Manson faces new lawsuit over sexual assault of a minor

Marilyn Manson’s legal troubles continue. The controversial artist recently dodged multiple lawsuits from women who accused him of sexual misconduct, ranging from assault to sex trafficking. (One suit was settled out of court, while another was dismissed on a technicality and may be re-filed.) Now, Rolling Stone reports that Manson faces a new lawsuit, this time concerning the sexual assault of an underage girl in the 1990s.

The lawsuit, filed on Long Island, New York by an anonymous plaintiff under the name “Jane Doe”, names Manson (under his legal name, Brian Warner) and his former labels Interscope and Nothing Records as defendants. Per Rolling Stone, the filing “includes counts of sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress against Warner, and negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other charges, against the labels.”

Jane Doe is alleged to have met Warner after a concert in Dallas in 1995, when he invited her and another girl onto his tour bus and specifically asked for their ages, school grades, home addresses, and phone numbers. Doe was 16 years old at the time; the age of consent in Texas was (and is) 17.

“While on the tour bus, Defendant Warner performed various acts of criminal sexual conduct upon Plaintiff, who was a virgin at the time, including but not limited to forced copulation and vaginal penetration,” the suit states (per RS). “One of the band members watched Defendant Warner sexually assault Plaintiff. Plaintiff was in pain, scared, upset, humiliated and confused. After he was done, Defendant Warner laughed at her. … Then Defendant Warner demanded Plaintiff to ‘get the fuck off of my bus’ and threatened Plaintiff that, if she told anyone, he would kill her and her family.”

The suit goes on to allege that Mason groomed Doe over the course of the next several years, causing her to spiral into substance abuse. The filing describes a familiar pattern of emotional and psychological manipulation and sexual violence from Manson. He is said to have controlled who she could see and coerced her into having sex with him and with others, including “other band members or his assistant at the same time.” He also allegedly engaged in “hostile and verbally abusive behavior” including that he “openly called her racial slurs and called her fat.”

The suit further alleges that his labels “were well-aware of Defendant Warner’s obsession with sexual violence and childhood sexual assault.” Interscope and Trent Renzor’s Nothing Records never had “a reasonable system or procedure in place to investigate, supervise, or monitor its staff and/or agents, including Defendant Warner, to prevent pre-sexual grooming and sexual harassment, molestation, and assault of fans, including minors and women,” the filing reads.

“Defendants Interscope and Nothing Records were aware of Defendant Warner’s practice of sexually assaulting minors, and aided and abetted such behavior,” the suit goes on. “As a result of Brian Warner’s sexual abuse and assault, enabled and encouraged by Defendants Interscope and Nothing Records, Plaintiff has suffered severe emotional, physical, and psychological distress, including shame, and guilt, economic loss, economic capacity and emotional loss.”

Jeff Anderson, a lawyer well known for his fight against sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, is one of the attorneys representing Doe in the case. “This suit by this survivor is a giant step in bringing light and heat to an industry that has been hiding perils in plain sight. It’s time to face the music. New laws give survivors the time to take real action for justice and protection,” he says in a statement to Rolling Stone. “Powerful new laws in New York and California give adult survivors the chance to take legal action against predators and those that protect and profit from them. We are grateful to the survivors and so many others who now align with us to expose the predators and those in the music industry that have … permitted, promoted, and profiteered from his violence against the vulnerable.”

The full lawsuit can be read here at Rolling Stone.

If you or someone you know is suffering from sexual abuse, contact the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.