For the third time in less than two months, American idol producer Nigel Lythgoe has been accused of sexual assault.
A Jane Doe alleged a battery, gender violence and emotional distress complaint: “What should have been a quick two-minute ride ended up being a ten-to-fifteen minute sexual assault and battery in which plaintiff was trapped in Lythgoe’s vehicle.”
“Lythgoe’s sexual assault and battery of plaintiff left her feeling horribly violated, shocked, guilty, humiliated, and embarrassed. Such mental anguish and emotional distress were severe and lasting to this day,” the February 17 filed jury trial seeking suit added.
The alleged assault, starting from a casual encounter in February 2016 at a Beverly Hills hotel bar involving Jane Doe, her daughter, and two friends, takes on a more disturbing dimension with the revelation that Lythgoe’s driver purportedly chauffeured them against Jane Doe’s objections, navigating through nearby hills. In her partially redacted eight-page complaint, Jane Doe seeks unspecified damages.
Lythgoe’s representatives have not responded to inquiries regarding these fresh allegations. Lythgoe departed from the latest season of SYTYCD in January amidst sexual assault accusations from Paula Abdul and separate lawsuits from individuals identified as Jane Doe KG and Jane Doe KN.
While Lythgoe’s people have been silent so far, one of Jane Doe’s lawyers has not.
“It is troubling to hear of yet another alleged incident of a woman being taken advantage of and abused by a prominent public figure,” Melissa Eubanks said in a statement today. “We are proud to represent Jane Doe and humbled by her courage, and the courage of many other women, to come forward with her story in hopes of ending such egregious misconduct by persons of fame, celebrity, influence, and power,” the Johnson & Johnson attorney added.
Eubanks, along with Neville L. Johnson and Douglas L. Johnson, also serves as legal counsel for Abdul in her sexual assault and battery lawsuit filed against Lythgoe on December 29. In this lawsuit, the former Idol judge disclosed that the initial alleged assault occurred during the show’s early years, while the second incident took place in 2015 during a meeting concerning Season 12 of SYTYCD.
“For years, Abdul has remained silent about the sexual assaults and harassment she experienced on account of Lythgoe, due to fear of speaking out against one of the most well-known producers of television competition shows who could easily break her career as a television personality, and of being ostracized and blackballed by an industry that had a pattern of protecting powerful men and silencing survivors of sexual assault and harassment,” the Grammy winner’s complaint states.
Lythgoe labelled Abdul “erratic” and said that her claims were “false” and “deeply offensive to me and to everything I stand for.”
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