{"id":9032,"date":"2025-12-12T05:40:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T05:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/lizzo-dancers-push-for-trial-in-sexual-harassment-lawsuit\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T05:40:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T05:40:16","slug":"lizzo-dancers-push-for-trial-in-sexual-harassment-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/lizzo-dancers-push-for-trial-in-sexual-harassment-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Lizzo Dancers Push for Trial in Sexual Harassment Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tLizzo\u2019s former backup dancers are urging an appeals court to reject the superstar\u2019s free speech arguments and allow their blockbuster sexual harassment lawsuit to go to trial.<\/p>\n

\n\tA Los Angeles judge ruled at the start of 2024 that three dancers on Lizzo\u2019s Special<\/em> tour can move forward with some of their legal claims against the star (Melissa Jefferson). While the judge dismissed a headline-grabbing claim about fat-shaming, he said there should be a trial on equally salacious allegations that Lizzo pushed her staff to touch nude performers and eat bananas out of their genitals while attending sex shows in Amsterdam and Paris.<\/p>\n

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\n\tLizzo\u2019s lawyers are appealing that decision, arguing over the summer that group outings were part of the singer\u2019s creative process and thus should be shielded by First Amendment free speech protections. But in a Monday (Dec. 8) response brief, obtained by Billboard<\/em>, an attorney for the dancers says there\u2019s no real connection between these sex shows and Lizzo\u2019s art.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDefendants have not met their burden of showing how inviting employees to eat fruit from dancers\u2019 genitals at a nightclub or pushing Davis to touch the breasts of a sex performer bears a functional relationship to the creation of Lizzo\u2019s music or to the dancers\u2019 performance,\u201d wrote Ari Stiller<\/strong>, who\u2019s representing dancers Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez on appeal.<\/p>\n

\n\tStiller says it\u2019s not enough for Lizzo to claim she was hoping the dancers\u2019 work on the Special<\/em> tour would be inspired by these shows in Amsterdam and Paris. \u201cUnder that standard,\u201d the lawyer argues, \u201cJohnny Cash could shoot \u2018a man in Reno just to watch him die\u2019 and claim protection if he hoped it would inspire his performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAn attorney for Lizzo, Melissa Glass<\/strong>, told Billboard <\/em>in a statement on Thursday (Dec. 11) that the dancers\u2019 brief \u201csimply regurgitates the false accusations from their complaint.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs was true two years ago, the dancers cannot find a single person to corroborate their meritless claims,\u201d said Glass. \u201cIn contrast, 18 witnesses who worked with Lizzo on the Special<\/em> tour submitted sworn statements refuting the claims made by Davis, Williams and Rodriguez. We look forward to the Court of Appeals ruling on this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tDavis, Williams and Rodriguez shocked the music industry when they filed their blockbuster lawsuit against Lizzo in 2023. An avowed supporter of body and sexual positivity, Lizzo fervently denied the claims and said, \u201cI cannot accept or allow people to use that openness to make me out to be something I am not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJudge Mark H. Epstein winnowed down the dancers\u2019 lawsuit last February, throwing out claims that alleged Lizzo shamed them for gaining weight on tour. Judge Epstein said such allegations were barred by California\u2019s anti-SLAPP statute, which protects against meritless litigation that threatens free speech.<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, the judge determined that the dancers\u2019 sexual harassment claims did not fall under the anti-SLAPP umbrella. He said these allegations should go to trial, as should a claim that Davis was subjected to \u201cfalse imprisonment\u201d when Lizzo\u2019s staff held her in a hotel room to search her phone after she was fired.<\/p>\n

\n\tLizzo\u2019s appeal will likely be argued at some point in 2026. If she wins, the dancers\u2019 case will be over. If the appellate court sides with Davis, Williams and Rodriguez, the lawsuit will return to Judge Epstein\u2019s court for an eventual jury trial.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, wardrobe designer Asha Daniels also sued Lizzo in 2023, alleging she faced a \u201cculture of racism and bullying\u201d on the Special<\/em> tour. A judge ruled last year that Lizzo couldn\u2019t personally be sued in this instance, but Daniels\u2019 claims against the singer\u2019s company Big Grrrl Touring remain pending.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story was updated on Dec. 11 at 8:50 p.m. ET to add a statement from Lizzo\u2019s lawyer.<\/em><\/p>\n


\"Billboard
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Lizzo\u2019s former backup dancers are urging an appeals court to reject the superstar\u2019s free speech arguments and allow their blockbuster sexual harassment lawsuit to go to trial. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7130,1532,303,6173,233,301,342],"class_list":["post-9032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-dancers","tag-harassment","tag-lawsuit","tag-lizzo","tag-push","tag-sexual","tag-trial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9032","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=9032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}