Backstreet Boy Nick Carter was accused of rape
Actress and singer Melissa Schuman alleged in a blog post that Carter raped her when she was 18 years old.
LEARN MOREPosted: 11:24 a.m. EDT Aug 30, 2023
Another woman is coming forward and accusing Backstreet Boys' Nick Carter of rape. Carter lives in Las Vegas, and the case was filed in Clark County on Monday.
According to the lawsuit, a Pennsylvania woman, only identified by the initials A.R., claimed that in August 2003, Carter raped her in the cabin of a yacht in Florida when she was 15 years old. Carter was 23 at the time. The woman claims she was drunk at the time and that he told her to keep the incident a secret.
A few days later, the lawsuit claims Carter and his sister, Angel, encouraged her to meet him in a bus on their Florida property. When she arrived, she said Carter made her perform a sexual act on him.
The lawsuit lists a third incident that happened in October 2003, when a party was being held on boats that Carter owned. It states Carter was there with his sister Angel and at least three adult men. According to the lawsuit, she became drunk and was taken to a yacht cabin, where Carter allegedly allowed three other men to watch him have sex with her. She states that she asked him to stop several times.
As a result of these alleged assaults, the lawsuit claims she contracted human papillomavirus, also known as HPV. The woman states she told her mother about the assaults after the third incident, which was reported to Southern York County law enforcement in Pennsylvania in December 2003.
At least two other women have come forward with similar claims in the past. In December, Shannon Ruth filed a complaint in Clark County alleging Carter sexually abused her on a tour bus when she was 17. The Los Angeles District Attorney's office declined the case in 2018. Back in 2017, singer Melissa Schuman accused him of raping her in 2002, when she was 18.
Carter has never faced criminal charges related to any of these cases, has repeatedly denied the claims, and said the women are trying to extort money from him. He has filed counterclaims against both Ruth and Schuman.
Ruth filed an anti-SLAAP motion in February to try to have Carter's counterclaim dismissed. However, Nevada judge Nancy Alff ruled in Carter's favor in March, saying he could pursue his counterclaim. She stated Ruth hadn't met her burden of proof, and Carter had met his and had sufficient evidence to support his counterclaim. Carter's team produced evidence from over a dozen witnesses.
Schuman has also filed an anti-SLAAP motion to try to have Carter's counterclaim dismissed. That motion is scheduled to be heard in a Las Vegas courtroom on Wednesday.
Scripps News Las Vegas reached out to Carter's legal team about the lawsuit filed by A.R. on Monday and received the following statement:
"Nick is pleased with A.R.’s recent filing as it will ensure that all of the known co-conspirators will be brought to justice together. Anyone credulously covering these ridiculous claims should know that when A.R. first accused Nick Carter almost two decades ago, authorities listened and thoroughly investigated – and then informed A.R. that her allegations were meritless. In fact, at the conclusion of the police investigation into A.R.’s claims, law enforcement concluded that A.R. could herself have been charged with a crime," Dale Hayes Jr., Attorney for Nick Carter wrote in the statement. "Subsequently, in a separate incident, A.R. was threatened with criminal charges for filing a false police report. And now she’s at it yet again. But repeating the same false allegations in a new legal complaint doesn’t make them any more true. Nick is looking forward to the evidence being presented and the truth about these malicious schemes coming to light."
After the December lawsuit was filed, ABC pulled the plug on a Backstreet Boys Christmas special. Carter is scheduled to go on a solo tour in October.
This story was originally published by Jarah Wright at Scripps News Las Vegas.
