Rock legend Steven Tyler has been officially named in a lawsuit filed by a woman who claims to have had a s**ual relationship with him when she was a minor in the 1970s.
The lawsuit, which accuses Tyler of s**ual assault, s**ual battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, was made possible by California legislation that temporarily waived statutes of limitations for childhood s**ual abuse allegations.
The plaintiff, Julia Holcomb, alleges that Tyler convinced her mother to grant him guardianship over her when she was just 16 years old.
This allowed Holcomb to live with Tyler and engage in a s**ual relationship with him.
According to the lawsuit, they were together from 1973 until about three years later.
Initially, when the suit was filed over a month ago, it did not name Tyler specifically.
Instead, the defendants were referred to as Defendant Doe 1 and Does 2 through 50.
However, the complaint has since been amended to include Tyler’s name.
The identities of Does 2 through 50 have not yet been disclosed.
Holcomb, who was mentioned in a 1976 Rolling Stone profile of the band in relation to Tyler’s romantic life, has previously spoken publicly about her experience with Tyler and the lawsuit quotes directly from Tyler’s own memoir.
In his book, Tyler vaguely references a relationship with a teenage girl and claims her parents signed over custody to him.
He also mentions taking her on tour with him.
Holcomb, now known as Julia Misley, stated that she wants the lawsuit to expose an industry that protects celebrity offenders and hold them accountable.
She believes that she is not the only one who has suffered abuse in the music industry and hopes that her action will inspire other survivors to come forward.
In the lawsuit, Holcomb alleges that she was powerless to resist Tyler due to his power, fame, and financial resources.
She claims that he coerced her into believing their relationship was a romantic love affair.
According to the suit, they first met in 1973 after an Aerosmith concert in Portland, Oregon.
Tyler took Holcomb back to his hotel room where they discussed her age.
The next morning, he allegedly performed various acts of criminal s**ual conduct on her before sending her home in a taxi.
The suit also alleges that Tyler bought Holcomb a plane ticket to his next show in Seattle since she was a minor and couldn’t legally travel with him across state lines.
After the Seattle show, he allegedly continued to engage in s**ual acts with her before she flew back to Portland.
According to the lawsuit, Tyler convinced Holcomb’s mother to allow him to become her guardian in 1974.
This would enable them to travel together without facing criminal prosecution.
However, the suit claims that Tyler did not fulfill his promises of providing support, education, and medical care to Holcomb.
Instead, he allegedly continued to travel with her, assault her, and provide her with alcohol and drugs.
Holcomb further alleges that she became pregnant with Tyler’s child in 1975 when she was 17 years old.
Tyler insisted she have an abortion following an apartment fire, citing concerns about smoke inhalation and lack of oxygen for the baby.
Although a medical professional reportedly told her that the unborn baby was unharmed by the fire, Holcomb claims that Tyler threatened to stop supporting her if she didn’t go through with the abortion.
After the procedure, she left Tyler and returned to Portland, where she eventually moved on with her life.
Holcomb’s life was disrupted again when Tyler’s memoir was published.
Without her consent, he referenced their time together and framed the alleged abuse as a romantic relationship.
In the lawsuit, Holcomb argues that Tyler’s book subjected her to involuntary infamy and removed her anonymity.
This lawsuit comes at the end of California’s Child Victims Act, which lifted the statute of limitations for childhood s**ual abuse cases and provided a three-year lookback period for survivors to come forward with their allegations.
The deadline to file a lawsuit under this act is December 31, 2022.
Steven Tyler has not yet commented on the lawsuit.
