A US decide on Wednesday (Feb 21) dismissed a lawsuit accusing Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler of sexually assaulting a former teenage mannequin twice in in the future in Manhattan practically 50 years in the past.
US District Decide Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan stated Jeanne Bellino waited too lengthy to sue the 75-year-old Tyler, who has “vehemently” denied her allegations, beneath a New York Metropolis legislation defending victims of gender-motivated violence.
The decide stated Bellino didn’t qualify for a two-year window to pursue claims that might in any other case prolong past statutes of limitations, as a result of she didn’t allege that Tyler’s conduct posed a “critical danger of bodily harm”.
And in a ruling that would have an effect on different circumstances, Kaplan stated two state legal guidelines, the Little one Victims Act and Grownup Survivors Act, preempted Bellino’s declare, “considerably for the explanations” given by Tyler’s legal professionals.
The legal professionals stated these legal guidelines, whose home windows to sue have expired, “occupy the sphere relating to the revival of claims derived from state penal sexual assault legislation”, and Bellino confirmed a “lack of diligence” by not suing beneath the Little one Victims Act.
A lawyer for Bellino didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
David Lengthy-Daniels, a lawyer for Tyler, stated: “We agree with the decide’s reasoning, and are grateful for this outcome on behalf of our shopper.”
Bellino stated she was 17 in the summertime of 1975 when a pal organized for her to fulfill Aerosmith after a Manhattan style present.
She alleged that as she walked down the road with Tyler and his entourage, Tyler, then 27, pressured her right into a cellphone sales space the place he groped her, engaged in simulated intercourse and put his tongue down her throat, as others stood by laughing.
Bellino stated that as a result of she was sharing prices with the pal to experience dwelling to Queens, she went with the entourage to the Warwick Resort, the place Tyler allegedly pinned her in opposition to a effectively and once more assaulted her.
Tyler has additionally defended in opposition to a lawsuit in Los Angeles, the place one other girl, Julia Misley, claimed he sexually assaulted her in 1973 when she was 16 and he was 25. Bellino’s legislation agency has represented Misley in that case.
Tyler’s given identify is Steven Tallarico. Bellino’s case is Bellino v Tallarico, US District Courtroom, Southern District of New York, No. 24-00712.