By Dawn Chmielewski
(Reuters) – Music industry veteran Jimmy Iovine was sued on Wednesday by an woman who claims she was sexually abused.
In a complaint filed in New York state court in Manhattan, a woman identified only as “Jane Doe” said she was sexually abused, forcibly touched and subject to sexual harassment and retaliation in August 2007.
A spokesperson for Iovine said they were “quite shocked and baffled” by the alleged claim.
“This inquiry is the first we’ve heard of this matter. No one has ever made a claim like this against Jimmy Iovine, nor have we been contacted or made aware of any complaint by anyone, including this unknown plaintiff prior to now,” the spokesperson said.
The woman is seeking unspecified damages for assault and battery under the Adult Survivors Act, a special New York state law letting women sue their alleged abusers even if statutes of limitations have run out.
Her attorney, Douglas Wigdor, declined further comment.
The law expires after the U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday.
The onetime recoding engineer co-founded Interscope Records, a music label associated with West Coast hip hop that is now part of Universal Music Group. Iovine later partnered in 2006 with producer Dr. Dre to launch Beats Electronics, a company which Apple acquired in 2014 for $3 billion.
Others sued under the law include actors Russell Brand and Bill Cosby, former movie producer Harvey Weinstein, former president Donald Trump, and hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, whose case settled after one day.
Axl Rose, the former lead singer of Guns N’ Roses, was sued under the law on Wednesday by Sheila Kennedy, an actress and former Penthouse Pet of the Year, over an alleged 1989 assault.
(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
