Last week, Garth Brooks was sued in a California state court for sexual assault, battery and harassment. The woman who sued him used to work for him – as an independent contractor/hair stylist and MUA – and she claims that he exposed himself to her, harassed her in person and electronically and assaulted her at a hotel. Brooks pushed back on her claims, saying that the woman had “hassled” him with “threats, lies, and tragic tales of what my future would be if I did not write a check for many millions of dollars. It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face.” Brooks also noted that he filed an anonymous suit in September to stop the attempted extortion and defamation. Now Garth Brooks has filed two complaints in Mississippi. Sidenote: why all of the jurisdictional drama? The woman apparently lives in Mississippi, Garth and Trisha live in Tennessee, so why did the woman initially file suit in California?
Garth Brooks is taking legal action in response to a lawsuit filed by a former hairstylist and makeup artist of his that accused him of sexual assault and battery last week. The “Friends in Low Places” singer, 62, filed a pair of complaints in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on Tuesday, Oct. 8, denying the allegations the woman — whom he names in one of the documents — made against him and claiming that he was the “victim of a shakedown.”
In one of the complaints obtained by PEOPLE, Brooks used the pseudonym “John Doe” and noted that he would “re-file his complaint without pseudonyms” against “Jane Doe,” since the woman’s attorneys “disclosed” his identity to the press. In that filing, he also claimed that he was seeking to “defend himself against extortion.”
In his second complaint, Brooks asked for a trial by jury in order to “obtain relief” from the woman who he claimed was also attempting “defamation, false light invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress” on him. The musician alleged that the woman “devised a malicious scheme to blackmail” him into paying her “millions of dollars” after he “rejected her request for salaried employment and medical benefits.” He also claimed that she “threatened” to “publicly disclose false claims” about him that would “imperil his business and reputation.”
He further claimed in his court filing that she had worked as an “independent contractor” for him for 15 years before relocating from Tennessee to Mississippi. He said following her move, she “encountered financial difficulties” and asked him for assistance, which he claims he offered. Brooks claims the woman eventually asked for “salaried employment and medical benefits,” but when he denied her request, she “responded with false and outrageous allegations of sexual misconduct she claims occurred years ago.” The allegations, which included sexual “grooming,” “unwanted sexual touching and sexual assault” among others, were allegedly submitted in a “demand letter” to Brooks and “others” whom he worked with on July 17, 2024.
“The July 17 demand letter was the first time Plaintiff learned of these allegations, none of which has any basis in fact,” the complaint alleged. He claimed the woman then “threatened” to “publicly file” the letter — which he called “false and defamatory” — in a “draft civil complaint” against him unless he agreed to pay her “millions of dollars.” He said in the filing that she threatened that if he “failed to meet this demand” for payment, he “would face exposure of many millions of dollars ‘based on [his] net worth.’ ”
In addition to a trial, Brooks requested a “declaratory judgment” from the court that her allegations “against him of sexual misconduct are untrue” and compensatory and punitive damages, along with attorney’s fees.
In the previous post, I said that “believe women” should still apply, and I hope this woman is given a fair hearing. If she has evidence to back up her claims, the court and the lawyers will hopefully be able to figure something out. We’ve gotten so used to accused predators huffing and puffing about how they’re going to fight the charges, and then some of the time, those guys settle out of court quickly once their lawyers tell them “hey, this evidence doesn’t look good for you” or “this could do huge reputational damage if any of this comes out.” So keep your eye on that, although the way Garth is going after this woman in court, my gut is telling me that he’s not going to settle.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.