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'A Fantastical And Fictitious Story:' Bob Dylan's Lawyers Respond After Accuser Amends Timeline Of Alleged Sexual Abuse
A woman has alleged Bob Dylan sexually abused her over a period of time in 1965, but his team has stated he was overseas during the period in question.
A woman accusing music icon Bob Dylan of sexually abusing her as a 12-year-old girl in the mid-1960s has amended her timeline of the alleged abuse, which the singer's attorneys have called “fantastical and fictitious.”
A woman, now 68, filed a lawsuit against the 80-year-old singer in August claiming the singer "befriended and established an emotional connection with the plaintiff" during a six-week period in April and May of 1965, according to the original complaint obtained by Page Six.
The suit claims that the “Mr. Tambourine Man” singer groomed the girl in order to lower her “inhibitions with the object of sexually abusing her, which he did, coupled with the provision of drugs, alcohol, and threats of physical violence, leaving her emotionally scarred and psychologically damaged to this day.”
The accuser alleges the sexual abuse occurred over several visits to Dylan’s then-apartment at The Chelsea Hotel.
Dylan’s team calls the accusations "a fantastical and fictitious story” and “a chronological impossibility.”
They state that Dylan was not even in New York at the time, where the abuse allegedly took place. During the end of April and into May of 1965, around the original six-week period denoted in the lawsuit, Dylan was on a U.K. Tour, CNBC has reported. Parts of the tour were captured in "Don’t Look Back," a 1967 documentary by filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker. According to Clinton Heylin’s 1996 biography, ‘Bob Dylan: A Life Stolen By Moments Day By Day 1941-1995,” Dylan traveled to France and Portugal into June of 1965, according to the BBC.
The plaintiff recently amended the timeline of the alleged sexual abuse, saying it took place over several months instead of the original six-week period, Fox News reports.
In court documents obtained by Fox News this week, Dylan’s law team responded to the amended filing, stating, "unless expressly admitted, all allegations in the Complaint are denied.”
They called the lawsuit "a brazen shakedown masquerading as a lawsuit" filed "in bad faith.”
"The allegation is false, malicious, reckless and defamatory. Mr. Dylan will not be extorted. [...] Mr. Dylan will vigorously defend himself against these lawyer-driven lies and seek redress against all those responsible, including by seeking monetary sanctions against persons responsible for manufacturing and bringing this abusive lawsuit."
The singer's lawyers appeared to try to discredit the accuser by pointing to her profession as a psychic.
“According to her own website, plaintiff is a psychic who specializes in ‘channeling’ the deceased loved ones of grieving families — for a fee,” the filing states, according to Rolling Stone. They noted that the woman claims she has been "abducted by aliens" and can speak "to cats, dogs and other animals — alive and dead — as well as insects and plants.”
Peter Gleason, one of the accuser’s lawyers, defended his client's profession to Rolling Stone.
“Neither my client or her counsel are going to be bullied,” he said.
