Garth Brooks Sued for Sexual Assault by His Makeup Artist

Garth Brooks has been sued by an anonymous “Jane Roe” plaintiff who claims the country music star sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions in 2019 when she was working for him as a hair and makeup artist.

In the graphic lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court and obtained by Rolling Stone, the woman says the first alleged battery took place while she was at Brooks’ home on a styling appointment. She claims Brooks stepped out of a shower naked, “grabbed her hands and forced them onto his erect penis” while stating that he “had fantasized about this moment and wanted her to perform oral sex on him.” The woman says she declined the proposition but remained as a staffer because she was financially dependent on the job, according to the 27-page complaint filed by lawyers Douglas H. Wigdor, Jeanne M. Christensen and Hayley Baker.

The woman says a second incident happened when she agreed to travel with Brooks to Los Angeles for a Grammy tribute to Sam Moore. She claims Brooks “trapped” her in a hotel room, “grabbed her hands and pulled her” onto a bed where she alleges he raped her. She claims that at one point during the alleged assault, Brooks held her upside down by her feet. “She was helpless to move from this grip and terrified of what was happening to her. While he held her upside down, dangling by her ankles – all the blood rushed to her head, causing her to be dizzy and sick. While Brooks forcefully penetrated her, her said perverse things to Ms. Roe about his sexual prowess.” (Reps for Brooks did not immediately reply to a request for comment.) Roe claims in her lawsuit that she considered suicide following the alleged assault.

Roe says she was first hired to do hair and makeup for Brooks’ wife, Trisha Yearwood, in 1999, but that she transitioned into working for Brooks in 2017. She alleges Brooks also groped her and sent her explicit text messages.

The Jane Roe is suing for sexual assault, battery and gender violence under California’s Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act. “We are confident that Brooks will be held accountable for his actions,” Wigdor, Christensen and Baker said in a statement. “We applaud our client’s courage in moving forward with her complaint against Garth Brooks. 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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Last month, before Roe had filed her suit, Brooks denied her allegations in a preemptive complaint filed in federal court in Mississippi. That filing was brought anonymously with the plaintiff described only as a “celebrity and public figure who resides in Tennessee.” But Roe’s attorney has now confirmed that it was brought by Brooks, telling CNN that his “efforts to silence our client through the filing of a preemptive complaint in Mississippi was nothing other than an act of desperation and attempted intimidation.”
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In the preemptive complaint, Brooks denied Roe’s allegations and characterized her lawsuit as “attempted extortion.” The complaint cited a letter Roe sent, via her attorney, in August that “offered to refrain from publicly filing her false and defamatory lawsuit against Plaintiff in exchange for a multi-million dollar payment. She threatened that if Plaintiff failed to meet this demand, he would face exposure of many millions of dollars ‘based on [his] net worth.’”

Brooks asked the court to declare Roe’s accusations untrue and stop her from publicizing them. Roe’s lawyers then fired back, asking the court to deny Brooks’ request. They specifically called on the court to otherwise rebuff Brooks’ attempts to have the case proceed with him identified as “John Doe,” saying he was an “alleged sexual assault predator” who shouldn’t get preferential treatment.