Photo Credit: Francisco Antunes
Late last month, a shocking sexual assault lawsuit against Bob Dylan was dismissed with prejudice. Now, the “Blowin’ in the Wind” singer-songwriter’s legal team is pushing for sanctions against the attorneys associated with the “sham” complaint.
This newest twist arrives nearly one year after the stunning case – which centered on alleged sexual assault that had occurred almost six decades ago – first made its way to a New York federal court.
According to the unsettling action, Bob Dylan had “over a six-week period” in 1965 “exploited his status as a musician by grooming” the alleged victim, who was 12 years old at the time. Dylan was said to have then provided the minor “with alcohol and drugs and sexually abuse[d] her multiple times,” including at his apartment in the Hotel Chelsea.
As a result of the alleged “predatory, sexual and unlawful acts,” the purported victim claimed to have suffered “emotional and physical injury, including, but not limited to, serious and severe mental distress, anguish, humiliation and embarrassment, as well as economic losses.”
Bob Dylan’s counsel promptly fired back against the “false, malicious, reckless and defamatory” complaint, describing it as a “brazen shakedown masquerading as a lawsuit” and maintaining that it’d been “filed in bad faith for the improper purpose of extracting a huge payout on the threat of negative publicity.”
And as mentioned at the outset, the plaintiff towards July’s end opted to dismiss the suit with prejudice, and this definitive conclusion represented the culmination of a much-publicized unraveling in the preceding weeks.
In brief, the plaintiff (whose name remains sealed due to the nature of the claims) failed to turn over multiple documents by the July 22nd discovery deadline. Three days prior to the cutoff, the filing individual’s attorneys said that they’d been “discharged” by their client, whereas the plaintiff purportedly told a relative that she’d axed her counsel because they’d lost pertinent documents.
“Whatever the truth, the inescapable conclusion is clear: Mr. Isaacs and Mr. Gleason [the plaintiff’s former lawyers] failed to produce documents they should have possessed and reviewed before ever bringing this lawsuit in the first place,” Bob Dylan’s legal team said in a letter requesting permission to pursue sanctions under Rule 37.
“Counsel flouted their discovery obligations for months and ignored warnings from the Court about their failure to produce documents,” the firmly worded text reads. “The need for Mr. Isaacs and Mr. Gleason to face real consequences here is not lessened by Plaintiff’s voluntary dismissal of her suit with prejudice.”
Back in April, Bob Dylan triumphed in a “downright absurd” lawsuit involving his $300 million UMPG catalog sale, and the 81-year-old is preparing to kick off a European tour leg next month.