Nick Carter has filed a counter lawsuit against the woman alleging he sexually assaulted her more than two decades ago, as well as another woman who made similar accusations.
According to legal documents filed in Clark County, Nevada, and obtained by ET, the Backstreet Boys singer is suing Shannon Ruth, who in December accused him of sexual battery when she was a minor. The singer's also suing Melissa Schuman and her father, Jerome Schuman, for $2.3 million, claiming these individuals have been trying to extort money from him for years, and have caused BSB to lose millions in potential revenue due to the allegations.
In a statement to ET, Ruth's attorney, Mark Boskovich says, "Why should Nick Carter be believed with his long history of abusing females? A jury will weigh the evidence and decide."
Carter alleges there's a conspiracy against him brought on by Ruth in conjunction with the Schumans that he claims has been years in the making. According to the docs, Ruth's December lawsuit "is the culmination of an approximate five-year conspiracy orchestrated by Counter-Defendants to harass, defame and extort Carter."
The singer goes on to claim that "the campaign was launched and bolstered by the #MeToo movement, beginning at its dawn, when Counter-Defendant Melissa Schuman posted a salacious blog entry in November 2017, falsely asserting that she had been sexually assaulted by Carter in 2003." Carter goes on to claim that, after attacking him, Schuman and her father "were all too eager to welcome a groveling Ruth into their scheme."
Back in December, Ruth filed a lawsuit claiming Carter sexually assaulted her in February 2001, which Carter has vehemently denied. The singer's attorney, Michael Holtz, told ET, "This claim about an incident that supposedly took place more than 20 years ago is not only legally meritless but also entirely untrue." The attorney continued, "Unfortunately, for several years now, Ms. [Shannon] Ruth has been manipulated into making false allegations about Nick -- and those allegations have changed repeatedly and materially over time. No one should be fooled by a press stunt orchestrated by an opportunistic lawyer -- there is nothing to this claim whatsoever, which we have no doubt the courts will quickly realize."
Ruth claimed the alleged incident happened after a concert in Tacoma, Washington, on Carter's tour bus, where he's alleged to have assaulted her in the bathroom and in his bedroom. Following the allegations, ABC scrapped plans to air its planed Backstreet Boys holiday special, "A Very Backstreet Holiday."
In his countersuit, Carter refers to Ruth as a "vulnerable and highly impressionable individual craving attention and desperate to fit in." He claims the Schumans "groomed and coached Ruth, coaxing her to inflate her initial claim of being abused at the hands of a third-party, to being physically abused at the specific hands of Carter, and, finally, to being sexually assaulted by Carter."
The 43-year-old singer says that when Ruth and Melissa Schuman finally reported their claims after waiting "years and years to report" it, independent investigations into both cases "resulted in no charges being filed against Carter."
According to the docs, Carter also alleges that the Schumans "preyed on Aaron, who was clearly struggling with mental health issues and drug addiction, and exploited his troubling behavior (a private Carter family matter) to advance their defamatory campaign against Carter."
The docs went on to detail Aaron Carter's numerous mental health issues and diagnoses, including multiple personality disorder, schizophrenia, acute anxiety disorder and manic depression. To treat his conditions, Aaron had been prescribed and used Xanax, Seroquel, Gapapentin, Hydroxyzine, Trazodone and Omazeprazole, according to the court documents. Aaron Carter died on Nov. 5. He was 34.
Nick's suing for $2,350,000 in damages.
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