Steven Tyler has denied allegations he sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl and forced her to get an abortion.
Steven Tyler has denied allegations he sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl and forced her to get an abortion.
The Aerosmith frontman filed a lengthy response to the claims, which stem from 1973 and were made in a December 2022 lawsuit, arguing the plaintiff Julia Misley consented to their sexual relationship and he had immunity as her legal guardian at the time granted by her parents.
According to legal documents obtained by Rolling Stone, Steven, 75, asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed and cited 24 defences denying the allegations.
He also claimed Julia – formerly known as Julia Holcomb – had “not suffered any injury or damage” as a “result of any action by Defendant”.
Steven added in his filing: “If it is determined that Plaintiff has been damaged, then any such damages were not caused by Defendant.”
Julia’s lawsuit came days ahead of a December 31 deadline for it to fall under California’s Child Victims Act, which put a halt on the statute of limitations for people to report sexual abuse crimes committed against them when they were minors.
An attorney for Julia have blasted Steven’s filing for “gaslighting” their client with his defence.
In her court documents, Julia alleged the singer “coerced and persuaded” her into believing they were having “a romantic love affair”, which she states began when she was 16 and he was 25.
Even though she did not directly name Steven in her lawsuit, Julia has spoken publicly about her relationship with the rocker over the years.
The ‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing’ singer told in his memoir ‘Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?’ he nearly “took a teen bride”, adding 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”.
Julia said Steven, now a twice divorced dad-of-four, “performed various acts of criminal sexual conduct upon” her after they met at an Aerosmith concert in Portland.
Julia claims Tyler was able to convince her mother to allow him to become her legal guardian in 1975 after flying her to numerous cities where he was touring and performing the same sexual acts
But she said she wasn’t taken care of the way Steven promised, claiming he “continued to travel with, assault and provide alcohol and drugs to” her.
She also alleged that he eventually got her pregnant, according to the court docs, and forced her to get an abortion amid threats of him withdrawing support for her.
Julia has also said the fling caused her to leave Steven behind and move back to Portland to start a new life as a devout Catholic.
Her attorney Jeff Anderson said in a statement to Rolling Stone Steven’s filing was using “a sham” legal guardianship to “avoid prosecution for sex crimes”.
He added: “He’s heaping more pain on Misley and gaslighting her by falsely claiming that she ‘consented’ and that the pain he inflicted was ‘justified and in good faith.’
“Never have we encountered a legal defence as obnoxious and potentially dangerous as the one that Tyler and his lawyers launched this week: their claim that legal guardianship is consent and permission for sexual abuse.”
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