Attorneys for Garth Brooks publicly disclosed the name of a woman who sued the country star for sexual assault last week in new court filings, drawing a sharp rebuke from the woman’s lawyers.
The reveal came via an updated version of a lawsuit Brooks himself filed last month, seeking to block an unnamed “Jane Roe” from publicizing her accusations. After she made good on those threats last week, Brooks refiled the case on Tuesday with her real name listed.
“Defendant’s allegations are not true,” the country star wrote in the amended lawsuit, leveling the same claims about “attempted extortion” and defamation.
The move quickly sparked outrage from the accuser’s attorney, who later on Tuesday vowed to immediately move to reseal her name and seek legal penalties against Brooks. They also asked the media not to disclose the name
“Garth Brooks just revealed his true self,” Douglas H. Wigdor wrote. “Out of spite and to punish, he publicly named a rape victim. With no legal justification, Brooks outed her because he thinks the laws don’t apply to him. On behalf of our client, we will be moving for maximum sanctions against him immediately.”
Using the name Jane Roe, the accuser filed her case against Brooks last week in Los Angeles, accusing him of sexually assaulting her while she worked for him as a hairstylist and makeup artist. The case, which included an alleged incident of rape, claimed the singer took advantage of her financial troubles to subject her to “a side of Brooks that he conceals from the public.”
“This side of Brooks believes he is entitled to sexual gratification when he wants it, and using a female employee to get it is fair game,” Roe’s attorneys wrote in their complaint.
Brooks vehemently denied the allegations, saying in a statement that he had been threatened that the woman’s “lies” would be released to the public unless he wrote “a check for many millions of dollars.
“It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face,” Brooks wrote. “Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money. In my mind, that means I am admitting to behavior I am incapable of—ugly acts no human should ever do to another.”
Brooks also confirmed he had been behind a mysterious lawsuit filed last month, obtained by Billboard, in which an anonymous “celebrity” plaintiff sued in Mississippi federal court over an unnamed accuser’s sexual abuse allegations. Calling the accusations false and an “ongoing attempted extortion,” the earlier case asked a judge to stop her from further publicizing them.
It was in the Mississippi case that Brooks revealed the accuser’s name on Tuesday. Billboard has chosen not to report the woman’s name.
A rep for Brooks declined to comment for this story.