Nick Carter is being sued by singer Melissa Schuman five years after she publicly accused him of sexual assault — an allegation he has long denied.
Schuman, 38, claims the 43-year-old Backstreet Boy forced oral sex on her in 2003 when she was 18 and he was 22, and then allegedly made her reciprocate. She claims he then took her virginity.
LA prosecutors said in 2018 they would not pursue sexual assault charges against Carter because the statute of limitations had expired, but a recently passed California law temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for sexual assault claims to be brought in civil court.
“I’ve faced extraordinary backlash for standing up for myself; I am not the first, however my intention is that I am the last,” Schuman said Tuesday in a statement to The Post.
“It’s time that powerful figures in the music industry get the message that they can no longer afford to enable and protect sexual predators. I’m fighting to make the music industry a safer place to work and perform.”
As the #MeToo movement got underway, Schuman detailed her accusations against Carter in a 2017 blog post that has since been deleted.
“The attack by Nick Carter on Melissa is intolerable. He is a coward…and a dangerous one,” Schuman’s attorney, Jeff Anderson, said in the Tuesday statement. “Melissa’s case describes how powerful, celebrated individuals can weaponize their fan base to intimidate and harass the survivors of their crimes. Finally, we have an opportunity now to prove that there are legal consequences to these crimes.”
Schuman’s legal team claims a pattern of “online intimidation by Defendant Carter’s friends, associates and/or agents,” which allegedly constituted “an organized attempt to intimidate, blame, harass and discredit Plaintiff and her allegations of sexual assault in the court of public opinion.”
Schuman, a band member of the early aughts pop group Dream, was allegedly pressured into recording a “duet” with Carter that she was reportedly told “was being pitched for a movie soundtrack.” Schuman says she recorded her portion of the “duet” independently of Carter.
“The recording was never sold,” the lawsuit states. “When Plaintiff went public with her assaults by Defendant Carter, he used this song ‘collaboration’ as ‘evidence’ that he ‘was always respectful and supportive of Melissa both personally and professionally.’ Defendant Carter used this recording to generate the false impression that he and Plaintiff had a friendly relationship.”
Carter has denied Schuman’s allegations, as well as those lodged by Shannon Ruth, who accused him of sexually assaulting her on a tour bus in 2001 when she was just 17.
In a February counterclaim to Ruth’s lawsuit filed in Nevada, Carter alleged he is a victim of extortion, defamation and harassment by Ruth and Schuman.
“Melissa Schuman has been peddling this tale for many years, but her allegation was false when she first made it back in 2017 — and it still is,” Carter’s lawyer, Liane Wakayama, told The Post in a statement on Tuesday.
“A judge in Nevada recently ruled, after reviewing the extensive evidence we laid out, that there are strong grounds for Nick Carter to proceed with his lawsuit against Ms. Schuman for plotting to damage, defame and extort Nick, his associates, his friends and his family.”
The statement continued: “In light of our progress in Nevada, this kind of response is at once both predictable and pathetic. But this PR stunt won’t shake Nick from his determination to hold Ms. Schuman and her co-conspirators to account for the immeasurable pain and suffering their extortionate conduct has caused.”
𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝘀, 𝗖𝗼𝗽𝘆𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 & 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘆: nypost.com
𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗠𝗖𝗔,
𝗣𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗮𝘁 dmca@enspirers.com
