{"id":6632,"date":"2025-06-24T05:56:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T05:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/smokey-robinson-accusers-slam-defamation-claims-over-press-conference\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T05:56:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T05:56:16","slug":"smokey-robinson-accusers-slam-defamation-claims-over-press-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/smokey-robinson-accusers-slam-defamation-claims-over-press-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Smokey Robinson Accusers Slam Defamation Claims Over Press Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tSmokey Robinson\u2019s former housekeepers say they had the right to hold a press conference publicizing an explosive rape lawsuit against the Motown legend and are asking a judge to toss defamation counterclaims in the contentious legal proceedings.<\/p>\n

\n\tA motion filed Friday (June 20) takes issue with the countersuit Robinson filed after four anonymous former housekeepers brought a $50 million civil lawsuit accusing the 85-year-old singer of a yearslong pattern of sexual assault.<\/p>\n

\n\tRobinson and his wife, who\u2019s also named as a defendant in the housekeepers\u2019 case, said the rape allegations are fabricated and defamatory. While claims in legal filings are typically shielded from defamation lawsuits by the First Amendment, the Robinsons argued the accusers stepped outside these protections when they \u201cparaded themselves in front of the media\u201d with a press conference the day the lawsuit was filed.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe housekeepers\u2019 lawyers disagree. In Friday\u2019s motion to strike the counterclaims, attorneys for the accusers say their press conference was actually covered by the so-called litigation privilege and therefore cannot be the subject of defamation claims.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe statements underlying the Robinsons\u2019 claims, delivered by counsel for Jane Does during a press conference, concern a pending civil lawsuit involving serious allegations of sexual misconduct and are explicitly tied to that litigation,\u201d write lawyers John Harris<\/strong> and Herbert Hayden<\/strong>. \u201cThe Robinsons\u2019 cross-complaint is entirely without merit and appears to be a retaliatory and improper effort to chill the Jane Does\u2019 right to speak out and to access the courts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFriday\u2019s motion also criticizes the Robinsons for trying to \u201cmislead\u201d the court by including only partial quotations from the press conference in their countersuit, including a reference to Harris calling Robinson a \u201cserial and sick rapist.\u201d The housekeepers\u2019 attorneys say Harris actually said, \u201cWe believe that Mr. Robinson is a serial and sick rapist\u201d \u2014 an important qualifier that couches this statement as an opinion and not a fact.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe housekeepers are asking a Los Angeles judge to strike the counterclaims under California\u2019s anti-SLAPP statute, which clears the way for quick dismissal of defamation claims that threaten free speech. Under this law, the accusers can also make the Robinsons reimburse their legal fees if they win the anti-SLAPP motion.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Robinsons\u2019 attorney, Christopher Frost<\/strong>, said in a statement to Billboard<\/em> on Monday (June 23) that Friday\u2019s motion is \u201call just procedural posturing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhile the law may allow them to make false and slanderous allegations in a complaint with impunity, it does not allow them to orchestrate a press conference to regurgitate the same lies,\u201d said Frost.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrost said the housekeepers\u2019 \u201ctransparent motivation\u201d is to use the anti-SLAPP motion as a tactic to slow down the litigation, echoing allegations in his own court filing last week that accused the women of trying to delay the discovery process.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt is puzzling to us why they would want to do so if they really believed in their case,\u201d added Frost.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smokey Robinson\u2019s former housekeepers say they had the right to hold a press conference publicizing an explosive rape lawsuit against the Motown legend and are asking a judge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2044,300,2682,720,1782,5825,3377,5824],"class_list":["post-6632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-accusers","tag-claims","tag-conference","tag-defamation","tag-press","tag-robinson","tag-slam","tag-smokey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6632","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=6632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}