A Las Vegas judge has allowed Nick Carter’s counterclaim against one of the women accusing him of sexual assault to move forward.
Nick Carter has repeatedly denied the claims laid out in the case, saying the women are attempting to extort money from him. The Backstreet Boys singer filed counterclaims against Melissa Schuman and Shannon Ruth. Both Schuman and Ruth filed anti-SLAAP motions to try and have the counterclaims dismissed. The counterclaim against Ruth was allowed by a judge in March, while this hearing allowed the counterclaim against Schuman to proceed.
Schuman’s lawyer told the judge that multiple witnesses believe his clients’ statements and that Carter’s allegations of extortion were a “recent fabrication.”
“From her declaration, Melissa told her friend Rachel and Rachel’s mother as well as her own family and her manager after the incident,” Schuman’s lawyer told the court. “She also started seeing a therapist and told the therapists. All of those statements were back in 2003, which is 14 years before Melissa Schuman went public with this in 2017.”
“Both witnesses parroted what [Schuman] told them,” argued Lian K. Wakayama, Carter’s lawyer. “Mr. Carter’s testimony alone specifically contradicts what Ms. Schuman has put in her declaration. Everything was consensual. Even Schuman’s own evidence contradicts her story.”
“Rachel, [Schuman’s friend], testified when they left Carter’s apartment the next morning that quote, ‘I thought everything was fine.’ Melissa is claiming she was repeatedly raped all through the night and the next morning. Her best friend was there, in close proximity, and has no idea? How can that be?”
Schuman’s lawyer argued that Carter’s evidence was ‘hearsay’ and not testimony, while Carter’s lawyer disagreed saying there was a mountain of evidence to show the truth.
“The counterclaim is the product of Mr. Carter finally being able to defend himself and stand up for himself after struggling alone in silence for years,” Wakayama told the court. “His counterclaims expose the truth and, in reality, it exposes the dark side of the fandom.”