Garth Brooks Sex Assault and Battery Suit Paused In California

A California sexual assault and battery lawsuit against country singer Garth Brooks has been paused as a Mississippi federal court weighs a complaint that Brooks filed first against his accuser.

Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald in the US District Court for the Central District of California denied without prejudice Brooks’ motion to dismiss the California suit, where the country mogul is a defendant. A Mississippi judge will decide whether the case should also proceed in California, as it handles claims from Brooks that his former stylist is extorting him, the Wednesday order said.

The stylist, using a Jane Roe pseudonym, sued Brooks in October, saying he sexually assaulted her on a 2019 work trip to L.A. and continued to attack her in the months that followed.

She identified Brooks as having filed a suit against her in Mississippi federal court the month prior under a John Doe pseudonym, saying it was an attempt to silence her. The Mississippi lawsuit accused her of threatening a California lawsuit because Brooks denied her requests for a raise and health insurance.

Roe accused Brooks of filing in Mississippi as a “forum-shopping maneuver,” the order said. Her argument is that Brooks filed to deny Roe access to her preferred court and block her from using California’s anti-SLAPP statute, which shields defendants from meritless lawsuits meant to silence them.

Girard Bengali APC, Wigdor LLP, and HB Advocates PLLC represent Roe. O’Melveny and Myers LLP represents Brooks.

The case is Roe v. Brooks, C.D. Cal., No. 2:24-cv-09462, 12/11/24.