(CNN) — Backstreet Boy’s attorney Nick Carter has responded to sexual assault allegations made in a new investigative Discovery documentary about the singer and his late brother Aaron Carter.
in”Fallen idols: Nick and Aaron Carter”, the three women – Ashley Repp, Melissa Shuman Henschel and Shannon “Shay” Ruth – recount alleged assaults in 2001 and 2003, for which they previously sued Nick Carter.
Aaron Carter died in 2022 at the age of 34.
Asked to comment on the documentary, which will air in two parts Monday and Tuesday, Nick Carter’s attorney, Dale Hayes Jr., told CNN in a statement: “These are the same “defamatory claims that led us to To prosecute this group of conspirators.”
Women provided Three separate complaints From December 2022 to August 2023. Carter filed two countersuits in 2023 and 2024, the first against Henschel and Ruth and the second against Repp.
“Those cases are now moving through the legal system, and based on both the preliminary court rulings and the overwhelming evidence, we are confident that we will prevail and hold them accountable for spreading these lies,” Nick Carter’s statement said. The lawyer added.
The first two episodes of “Fallen Idols” aired Monday night and explored the stories of Henschel and Repp, as well as the troubled family lives of the brothers growing up. The final two episodes will air this Tuesday night on ID and Max. Ruth’s story is shared in the fourth chapter. (CNN and IT, like Max, are units of Warner Bros. Discovery.)
According to the documentary, Nick Carter refused to be interviewed by the filmmakers.
Accusations
In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles, Henschel, a former pop singer with the girl group Dream, alleges that Nick Carter used his “character, status and power as a well-known singer to approach, groom, manipulate, exploit and sexually harass” her. According to a copy of her complaint posted on the “Fallen Idols” website last year.
Henschel said in her lawsuit that the incident happened in 2003 at Carter’s home in Santa Monica when she was 18 years old. Carter, who was 22 at the time, allegedly performed oral sex on her “against her will” and “forced” her. “Henschel wanted to perform a sexual act on her before raping her. She claims he repeatedly told the singer that he “didn’t want to have sex.”
He reiterated these claims in the documentary and appeared in all four episodes.
She first raised the allegations against him in a 2017 post published on her personal blog. Due to the statute of limitations expiring in 2013, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a 2018 legal filing that it would not file sexual assault charges against Carter.
In 2022, California passed the Sexual Abuse and Concealment Liability Act, which allows adult survivors who meet certain conditions to file lawsuits in cases where the statute of limitations has expired. Henschel filed suit against Carter in April 2023, online records show. According to an amended complaint filed in October 2023, a copy of which appears on the “Fallen Idols” website, Henschel is suing Carter for sexual assault, sexual battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence.
Carter denied the allegations in a statement to CNN in 2017: “Melissa never disclosed anything to me when we were together or at any time because nothing we did was consensual.” We later recorded a song and performed together, and I have always respected Melissa personally and professionally. supported.”
“This is the first time I am hearing about these allegations after almost two decades,” he added. “Intentionally causing discomfort or harm to anyone is contrary to my nature and everything I stand for.”
In the second episode of “Fallen Idols,” Reb shares his story.
Repp’s lawsuit, alleging sexual assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress, was filed in August 2023 using only the initials AR and stemmed from two incidents in 2003, when Repp was 15, on Nick Carter’s yacht in Marathon, Florida. Old. Old.
According to the complaint, Repp accused Carter of drinking alcohol, “she was intoxicated at the time,” knowing she was a minor, and engaging in sexual acts with her “without her consent.” Repp also alleges that during the second incident, he “adduced” three of his male friends on the boat to watch him “have sex” with him.
Carter, according to the complaint, “continued to have intercourse with AR despite her repeated refusals and requests for him to stop.” Repp also alleges in the complaint that she contracted a sexually transmitted disease after the incident.
Carter denied Rebb’s allegations in a countersuit filed in January, available records show online.
Ruth, who will appear on “Fallen Idols” this Tuesday, filed a sexual assault lawsuit against Carter in December 2022, alleging the singer sexually assaulted her on a Backstreet Boys tour bus in 2001 when she was 17 in Tacoma, Washington.
Carter denied the allegations in a statement to CNN at the time, characterizing Ruth’s claims as “not only legally unsubstantiated, but completely false,” and Henschel later filed a countersuit against Ruth, Henschel and the father, Jerome Schumann, in 2023.
“According to a copy of the lawsuit published in Fallen Idols, the Ruth and Repp cases were the culmination of an approximately five-year conspiracy by co-conspirators to harass, defame and extort money from Carter,” Carter alleges in his January countersuit. ” website. “The campaign was launched and fueled by the #MeToo movement, beginning at its dawn in November 2017 when Schuman published an incriminating post on her blog, falsely claiming she had been sexually assaulted by Carter in 2003,” the countersuit states.
CNN contacted attorneys for Henschel, Ruth and Repp, as well as representatives for Retrack Inc., which does business as Chaotic Productions, which is also named as a defendant in Schumann’s lawsuit.
All three cases are ongoing.
