{"id":6130,"date":"2025-05-29T13:45:24","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T13:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/smokey-robinson-sues-rape-accusers-for-defamation-elder-abuse\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T17:18:41","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T17:18:41","slug":"smokey-robinson-sues-rape-accusers-for-defamation-elder-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/smokey-robinson-sues-rape-accusers-for-defamation-elder-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Smokey Robinson Sues Rape Accusers for Defamation & Elder Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tSmokey Robinson has filed a countersuit against four longtime housekeepers who accused him of rape earlier this month, claiming the allegations were part of an \u201cextortionate scheme\u201d by the women and their attorneys.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe new cross-complaint, filed in Los Angeles court Wednesday (May 28), came three weeks after the unnamed housekeepers filed a $50 million civil lawsuit over allegations that the legendary Motown singer repeatedly raped them over nearly two decades in his employ.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn filing the countersuit, defense attorneys for Robinson went on offense \u2014 accusing the four women and their attorneys (John W. Harris<\/strong> and Herbert Hayden<\/strong>) of defamation, invasion of privacy, civil conspiracy and even elder abuse over the \u201cfabricated\u201d allegations.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe depths of plaintiffs\u2019 avarice and greed knows no bounds,\u201d Robinson\u2019s attorney Christopher Frost<\/strong> writes, according to a copy of the submitted complaint obtained by Billboard<\/em>. \u201cDuring the very time that the Robinsons were being extraordinarily generous with plaintiffs, plaintiffs were concocting an extortionate plan to take everything from the Robinsons \u2026 and wrongfully destroy the Robinsons\u2019 well-built reputations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAllegations made during court cases, such as those against Robinson, are typically shielded from defamation lawsuits by the First Amendment. But Robinson\u2019s attorneys say the accusers and their lawyers stepped outside those protections by holding a press conference in which they \u201cparaded themselves in front of the media\u201d and created a \u201cmedia whirlwind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhile the law protects plaintiffs\u2019 ability to concoct whatever fiction they may wish to create in a legal pleading \u2026 it does not allow plaintiffs to make gratuitous and slanderous allegations in media circus-type press conferences,\u201d Frost wrote in the cross-complaint.<\/p>\n

\n\tAttorneys for the accusers did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday. Frost confirmed that the cross-complaint was filed with the court on Wednesday but declined to comment otherwise.<\/p>\n

\n\tRobinson was sued on May 6, accused of forcing the housekeepers to have oral and vaginal sex in his Los Angeles-area bedroom dozens of times between 2007 and 2024. The singer\u2019s wife, Frances Robinson, was also named as a defendant over claims that she didn\u2019t do enough to stop the abuse, despite knowing that he had a history of sexual misconduct.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to the sexual abuse allegations, the lawsuit also claimed that the Robinsons paid their employees below minimum wage, and that Frances Robinson created a hostile work environment replete with screaming and \u201cracially-charged epithets.\u201d The accusers also filed a police report, leading the Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department to open a criminal investigation.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Wednesday\u2019s countersuit, the Robinsons\u2019 attorneys told a very different story. They said the housekeepers had \u201cstayed with the Robinsons year after year\u201d because the couple had treated them as \u201cextended family,\u201d including financially helping them and celebrating holidays together. The complaint quoted alleged text messages in which the accusers wished Robinson a happy birthday and told him \u201clove you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Robinsons did not abuse, harm, or take advantage of plaintiffs,\u201d Frost wrote. \u201cThey treated plaintiffs with the utmost kindness and generosity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Wednesday\u2019s new filing, the housekeepers and their lawyers made \u201cpre-litigation demands for $100 million or more\u201d before filing their case. When that failed to work, the new filing says the accusers went public with the allegations as loudly as they could.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe resulting media whirlwind was swift and severe, being picked up by virtually every major media outlet worldwide, and the harm to the Robinsons\u2019 reputation [is] palpable,\u201d Frost wrote. \u201cThe Robinsons are afraid to open the newspaper, read the internet, or even go out in public for fear of what they may hear or see next, no matter how fabricated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe filing focused on statements by Harris, the attorney, at a May 6 press conference calling Robinson a \u201cserial and sick rapist\u201d and a \u201cserial assaulter\u201d \u2014 statements that Robinson says are fair game for a defamation case: \u201cPlaintiffs may be able to make slanderous statements in a legal pleading (for now), but they are not entitled to do so in gratuitous, self-serving press conferences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to defamation and other wrongdoing, the Robinsons say the accusers tried to \u201chide, conceal, and destroy evidence exposing their illegal scheme,\u201d including by taking Frances Robinson\u2019s phone and deleting text conversations. The filing hinted that the Robinsons would seek additional penalties for such \u201cspoliation\u201d of evidence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smokey Robinson has filed a countersuit against four longtime housekeepers who accused him of rape earlier this month, claiming the allegations were part of an \u201cextortionate scheme\u201d by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[362,2044,720,2605,953,5825,5824,479],"class_list":["post-6130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-abuse","tag-accusers","tag-defamation","tag-elder","tag-rape","tag-robinson","tag-smokey","tag-sues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6178,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6130\/revisions\/6178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}