Nick Carter. Photo: Desiree Navarro/WireImage
Update from August 30th: According to KTNV News, a Clark County judge has allowed Nick Carter to file a countersuit against Melissa Schuman. Both Schuman and Shannon “Shay” Ruth unsuccessfully attempted to block Carter’s countersuit with anti-SLAPP motions. The news comes on the same day that a third woman sued Carter for sexual assault when she was 15 years old.
The original story follows.
Singer Melissa Schuman filed a lawsuit against Nick Carter on April 11, accusing the Backstreet Boy of sexual assault and battery. The lawsuit alleges that he “used his role, status and power as a popular singer to gain access to, manipulate, exploit and sexually assault Schuman,” according to Rolling Stone. Schuman, who was part of the girl group Dream, said she was 18 when Carter allegedly raped her in his Santa Monica apartment in 2003. Schuman first publicly accused Carter of sexual assault in November 2017, writing in a blog post, “He was adamant, refusing to take no for an answer” and that he may have been involved in sabotaging her career with their shared manager could. Carter, who first met Schuman while filming the TV horror film “The Hollow,” denied the allegations shortly afterwards. Schuman then filed a complaint with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in February 2018, but authorities refused to pursue the case, saying the statute of limitations had expired. Carter’s attorney called the new lawsuit a “PR stunt” in a statement to Rolling Stone.
This isn’t Carter’s first sexual misconduct lawsuit: He was sued for sexual harassment in December by Shannon Ruth, who said he invited her onto a tour bus, sexually assaulted her and gave her a sexually transmitted infection in 2001. Carter filed a countersuit against Ruth for $2.35 million in lost earnings as a result of the allegations. The lawsuit accuses Ruth of sexually abusing three other women and also of calling Ruth, who called herself autistic and disabled.