After being accused of destroying evidence by Bob Dylan’s legal team, the lady who had sued the folk-rock musician for allegedly sexually abusing her when she was 12 has dismissed her lawsuit.
A lawsuit was filed in August of last year by the unnamed plaintiff, J.C., who claimed that Dylan had mistreated her for six weeks between April and May of 1965.
In order to offer “drink and drugs and sexually assault her several times” at the renowned Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan, it was claimed that Dylan “exploited his status as a singer.”
The lawsuit also claimed that Dylan, who was 81 in May, had threatened the girl physically.
At the time, a representative for Dylan, real name Robert Zimmerman, had called the charge “untrue.”
Dylan’s legal team claimed in a letter submitted to the federal court on Wednesday that the plaintiff had deleted crucial text messages and that “monetary sanctions” were required.
Dylan’s attorneys announced on Thursday that the plaintiff has withdrawn the claim. An AFP request for comment was not immediately answered by her attorneys.
Orin Snyder, Dylan’s lead attorney, declared to AFP that “this case is over.” “The fact that it was ever brought up in the first place is outrageous.
We are happy that the case has been dismissed with prejudice and that the plaintiff has abandoned this lawyer-driven sham.”
The plaintiff’s lawsuit was submitted last summer, one day before the deadline for submitting claims under the Child Victims Act of New York State.
The law gave abuse victims the right to file a lawsuit against their claimed perpetrators regardless of the claims’ age or the validity of the statute of limitations.