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9 months ago
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A U.S. District Judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit from a woman who alleges that Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler sexually assaulted her when she was 17. The case was one of two pending against the Grammy winner. The other, filed in California in 2022, is still in process.
The suit from Jeanne Bellino maintains that she was a 17-year-old model when a friend arranged for her to meet the singer, then 27. Bellino’s complaint says Tyler sexually assaulted her twice over the next few hours, — once in a phone booth and once at a hotel — by forcibly groping, kissing and “humping” her.
The former American Idol star’s court filings have stated he “vehemently denies” the allegations.
The suit was brought under New York City’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act, which extends the statute of limitations for older cases, offering a new, two-year window in which they can make new claims for incidents that may have happened decades ago. Bellino maintains the incidents in her case date to 1975.
The judge in the case ruled on Wednesday that Bellino did not qualify for the new two-year window because she did not “allege conduct presenting a serious risk of physical injury.”
According to Reuters, Tyler’s attorney responded to the ruling with gratitude. “We agree with the judge’s reasoning, and are grateful for this result on behalf of our client.”
Bellino’s lawyers responded by saying that, while Tyler’s counsel filed to dismiss the case, they never served Bellino with that motion.
“Tyler’s lawyers filed the motion to ask the Court to dismiss the lawsuit in early February but failed to serve it on the survivor as required by court rules to allow the Plaintiff to file an opposition. The Plaintiff, Jeanne Bellino, will ask the Court to reinstate the lawsuit,” reads a statement on her counsels’ web site.
Meanwhile the other suit against the singer, brought in CA by a woman who says she had a sexual relationship with Tyler in 1973 when she was 16, is still out there.
