Child model Jeanne Bellino has filed a sexual assault lawsuit against Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler, alleging that she was assaulted twice in 1975 when she was 17.
The case was filed at New York’s Supreme Court, with Bellino claiming she suffered “severe and permanent emotional distress.” This lawsuit follows a separate case filed by another woman, Julia Misley, last year.
Tyler has denied all allegations in the previous lawsuit and has not yet commented on the claims made by Ms. Bellino. According to legal documents, Ms. Bellino was working as a model in Manhattan when she was allegedly forced into a phone booth by the singer during a meeting arranged by a friend after a fashion show.
The documents state Tyler was “mauling and groping” her and that she “fought back and struggled to be free but Tyler restrained her”.
His bandmates and members of the entourage “watched, laughed and did nothing to intercede”, she claims.
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Later at a hotel bar, Ms Bellion alleges that Tyler pinned her against a wall and started simulating sex. She “resisted and pulled his hair”, was left “sobbing and afraid”, and left after he called for her to go to his room, she claimed.
The case said Ms Bellino “has suffered and will continue to suffer, great pain of mind and body, severe and permanent emotional distress, physical manifestations of emotional distress, embarrassment, humiliation, physical, personal and psychological injuries”.
The BBC has requested a comment from Steven Tyler’s representatives. In September, the Boston band Aerosmith, led by Tyler, postponed six of their North America farewell tour shows due to vocal cord damage sustained by the 75-year-old singer. They had originally been scheduled to perform in Toronto on Tuesday but rescheduled it to February 2024. In 2001, Aerosmith was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and they also performed at the Super Bowl halftime show that same year.