Music producer Bassnectar has didn’t win dismissal of a lawsuit claiming he groomed, trafficked, and sexually abused underage women. In a prolonged ruling issued Thursday, a federal decide stated the case may proceed towards a trial set for February.
The digital music DJ, whose authorized title is Lorin Ashton, claimed in his dismissal movement that the three girls suing him had lied about their ages to “deceive” him into believing they had been at the very least 18 years outdated. He additional claimed he by no means “enticed” the plaintiffs into underage intercourse and by no means paid them for sexual contact. In her 54-page ruling, the decide stated these questions had been finest determined by a jury.
Ashton was first sued by plaintiffs Rachel Ramsbottom and Alexis Bowling in April 2021. A 3rd plaintiff, Jenna Houston, joined the lawsuit in Could 2021.
Ramsbottom alleges she started corresponding with Ashton on-line in 2012, when she was 17 and he was 34. She says she initially instructed him she was 18 however later “confessed” she was solely 17. She claims he invited her to a Memphis resort, had intercourse together with her there, after which pulled a “wad of cash” out of his backpack and handed it to her.
“The courtroom finds that whether or not this cash constituted cost or remuneration for intercourse constitutes a jury query,” U.S. District Courtroom Choose Aleta A. Trauger wrote in her ruling.
Bowling says she met Ashton on-line when she was 17 and initially claimed she was a yr older. She says he clearly understood her actual age when she was turned away from a present as a result of she was below 18. “Alexis reached out to Bassnectar to see if there was something he may do, however he couldn’t assist her. As a substitute, Bassnectar directed her and organized for her to fulfill him close to his resort,” the lawsuit states. Bowling claims she subsequently had intercourse with Ashton at a Kentucky resort when she was nonetheless a minor and that he gave her an envelope containing $1,600.
Houston alleges she began speaking with Ashton on-line when she was 16 years outdated. She says he invited her to a Ritz Carlton resort in Philadelphia and initiated intercourse together with her as quickly as she walked in his room. She claims he later booked her flights to have intercourse with him all around the nation.
The decide stated in her ruling that whereas Houston allegedly “misled” Ashton about her age, the query remained whether or not he “intentionally ignored” what he noticed together with his personal eyes. “The courtroom finds {that a} jury should resolve the query of whether or not Ashton intentionally disregarded apparent details from which he ought to have identified that Houston was nonetheless a minor once they met,” the decide wrote. She stated that based mostly on pictures of Houston from across the time she first met Ashton, it was potential that “no affordable individual would have believed she was eighteen or older.” The decide even cited deposition testimony from Ashton during which he allegedly agreed she “doesn’t seem like she’s 19 years outdated” in {a photograph} she allegedly emailed him.
Choose Trauger did reject some allegations. As an illustration, she dominated that Ramsbottom failed to indicate that she obtained any funds after she turned 18, so she couldn’t accuse Ashton of intercourse trafficking after she turned an grownup. The decide additionally rejected claims Ashton used “drive, fraud or coercion” on any of the ladies or that he benefitted “from participation in a enterprise” that he knew or ought to have identified engaged in intercourse trafficking.
“Our shoppers are very completely satisfied that the courtroom agreed with us that this case should be heard by a jury. Rachel, Alexis, and Jenna all stay up for their day in courtroom, yet one more step on their journey to justice on this case,” the plaintiffs’ legal professional M. Stewart Ryan tells Rolling Stone.
In a press release, Ashton’s attorneys Mitch Schuster and Kimberly S. Hodde inform Rolling Stone, “We welcome yesterday’s ruling.” The attorneys add, “The decide’s determination to dismiss a number of causes of motion may be very important and, because the ruling indicated repeatedly, whereas the regulation dictates that different claims are allowed to proceed to trial, the proof supporting them is extraordinarily skinny. This is a vital step ahead and we stay up for finishing Lorin Ashton’s exoneration at trial.”
Ashton has vehemently denied the accusations since they surfaced. He referred to them as “fictitious claims” in a letter despatched to Rolling Stone in 2023. A former staffer for Bassnectar described the artist as a “narcissistic tyrant” in a Rolling Stone interview. “It was a dictatorship,” they stated. “During which he’d say what he wished to occur and also you would wish to do it or face a berating telephone name that may gaslight you…. We had been mice in a maze of ache: You’d simply go the best way you needed to go, [because] every thing else is gonna be a world of struggling.”
