A California judge cited ongoing action in Mississippi, where Brooks’ accuser resides
The judge overseeing the graphic sexual assault lawsuit filed against Garth Brooks in October has denied the country singer’s request to dismiss the complaint from federal court in California, according to court documents obtained by Rolling Stone. Brooks had argued the case was “duplicative” of the defamation and extortion lawsuit he previously filed against his accuser in federal court in Mississippi last September.
In an order dated Dec. 11, the Los Angeles judge denied Brooks’ dismissal request without prejudice, meaning that Brooks can refile. The judge then put the California case on hold, saying the issue of where the dispute belongs should be decided by the judge in the “first filed” venue in Mississippi.
Brooks’ attempt to have the California suit dismissed was met with criticism from the lawyers for the former hair stylist and make-up artist who alleges Brooks raped her in Los Angeles in 2019. “Brooks’ bad faith, sham action was nothing but a forum-shopping maneuver,” the lawyers said last month, calling the original Mississippi lawsuit a way “to preempt” their client’s proposed California complaint and “deny her access” to California’s anti-SLAPP statute, a law that safeguards against frivolous claims designed to muzzle someone’s right to free speech. (The woman, who sued anonymously as a Jane Roe, resides in Mississippi.)
In his preemptive Sept. 13 lawsuit in Mississippi, Brooks claimed he was the victim of an “ongoing attempted extortion.” He called the woman’s allegations “outrageous” and asked the court to declare they were false. In his dismissal motion in California, Brooks claimed he was the victim of “blackmail.”
A lawyer for Brooks declined to discuss the case on the record. In a prior statement to Rolling Stone, the singer said, “For the last two months, I have been hassled to no end with threats, lies, and tragic tales of what my future would be if I did not write a check for many millions of dollars,” he said. “It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face.”
