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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Smokey Robinson has filed a defamation lawsuit towards 4 former housekeepers who accused him of rape and prompted a police investigation.
Robinson and his spouse Frances Robinson filed the counterclaim Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court docket towards the ladies and their attorneys, whose allegations, they are saying, have been “fabricated in an extortionate scheme.”
The submitting is a quick and forceful authorized and public pushback from the 85-year-old Motown music luminary in response to the ladies’s Could 6 lawsuit and a Could 15 announcement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division that its Particular Victims Bureau is “actively investigating criminal allegations” against Robinson.
The ladies are searching for a minimum of $50 million, alleging Smokey Robinson repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted them in his residence once they labored for him between 2007 and 2024. They stated Frances Robinson, a co-defendant, enabled him and created an abusive office.
The counterclaim opens with pleasant textual content messages from the ladies to contradict their claims towards Robinson, whose songs, together with “Tears of a Clown” and “The Tracks of My Tears,” established him among the many greatest hitmakers of the Nineteen Sixties.
The submitting says the ladies “stayed with the Robinsons 12 months after 12 months,” vacationed with them, celebrated holidays with them, exchanged items with them, requested for tickets to his concert events, and sought and acquired assist from them together with cash for dental surgical procedure, monetary assist for a disabled member of the family, and “even a automobile.”
The submitting — which incorporates photographs from the holidays and gatherings as reveals — says that regardless of the couple’s generosity, the ladies “secretly harbored resentment for the Robinsons and sought to complement themselves by way of the Robinsons’ wealth.”
“Sadly, the depths of Plaintiffs’ avarice and greed know no bounds,” the counterclaim says. “Throughout the very time that the Robinsons have been being terribly beneficiant with Plaintiffs, Plaintiffs have been concocting an extortionate plan to take all the pieces from the Robinsons.”
John Harris and Herbert Hayden, attorneys for the previous housekeepers, stated in a press release that the defamation go well with “is nothing greater than an try and silence and intimidate the survivors of Mr. Robinson’s sexual battery and assault. It’s a baseless and vindictive authorized maneuver designed to re-victimize, shift blame and discourage others from coming ahead.”
The attorneys stated they intend to get the Robinsons’ lawsuit thrown out by invoking California’s legal guidelines towards utilizing the courts to silence and intimidate individuals who sue.
The 4 girls, whose names are withheld of their lawsuit, every allege that Robinson would wait till they have been alone with him in his Los Angeles home after which sexually assault and rape them. One lady stated she was assaulted a minimum of 20 occasions whereas working for Robinson from 2012 till 2024. One other stated she labored for him from 2014 till 2020 and was assaulted a minimum of 23 occasions.
The Sheriff’s Division would give no particulars on its investigation past confirming its existence.
Robinson, who was a central determine within the Motown Data machine together with his group the Miracles and as a solo artist, is a member of each the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame and the Songwriters Corridor of Fame.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com