As Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs remains behind bars in the wake of being indicted by federal prosecutors over accusations of sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, and more, the music world was rocked by another potential scandal.
Country music superstar Garth Brooks has been accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit brought by a former makeup artist. On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by attorneys Arthur Aidala and Mark Eiglarsh to discuss the allegations and Brooks’ denial.
The Allegations
Last week, a woman who claimed she worked as a hairstylist and makeup artist makeup artist for Brooks and his wife, Tricia Yearwood, accused the musician of raping and assaulting her.
The 27-page lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday by a woman referred to only as “Jane Roe,” states that the “Friends in Low Places” singer allegedly raped her in a hotel room during a May 2019 trip to Los Angeles where he “appeared in the doorway to the bedroom, completely naked” and made her feel “trapped in the room alone with Brooks.”
According to the complaint, Brooks is also accused of repeatedly exposing his genitals, talking about sex and sexual fantasies, changing in front of her, and sending sexually explicit text messages. The woman who filed the lawsuit said she was hired to work as a hair and makeup artist for Yearwood in 1999 before moving to Brooks’ team in 2017.
Brooks denied the allegations and attempted to block his accuser from publicly repeating the accusations in a complaint he filed as “John Doe.” According to court documents obtained by The New York Post, he subsequently filed another complaint with the District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi Northern Division on Tuesday in which he named the accuser and sued her for damages.
The Case
Megyn said the statute of limitations has not expired on the rape allegation, which means this could be a criminal case against Brooks. She believes the fact that it is not speaks volumes. “I don’t want to start this with speaking of money grab, but…,” she said. “He is being accused of rape, not in a criminal court, not by the police, not by a [district attorney], but by a woman in a civil lawsuit against him.”
When it comes to facing a jury, Megyn said “the problem for her is going to be” that, after the alleged rape, she continued working for him. “Hair and makeup, their hands are all over you,” Megyn explained. “That is, in its own way, an intimate relationship, and then she continued doing that… after an alleged brutal rape that was so bad she claimed she went to seek treatment from her OBGYN and considered suicide?”
That is why she thinks this case will be a “tough sell” even with a lower burden of proof in civil court. “I would suggest that is why there is no criminal complaint against him,” Megyn said. “We are within the statute of limitations for a rape claim, but it doesn’t seem like she got any bites down at the police station – if she ever even went.”
Eiglarsh agreed. “Proof beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt is a very high burden… and my guess is that the cops said there just isn’t enough here,” he said. “A prosecutor probably looked at it said, ‘I’m likely not going to get a conviction.’ And if you could show that she is shaking him down for money and add that to the list of things that she did – including returning to intimately put makeup on his face – it doesn’t mean she is lying, but it just makes it a tougher sell to the jury.”
The Denial
One area that Megyn thinks casts some doubt on this case is Brooks’ denial. In addition to the legal filings, he issued a statement via his publicist to defend himself. It read, in part:
“For the last two months, I have been hassled to no end with threats, lies, and tragic tales of what my future would be if I did not write a check for many millions of dollars. It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face. Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money. In my mind, that means I am admitting to behavior I am incapable of — ugly acts no human should ever do to another.”
Megyn said she doesn’t “love” the statement. “I’m not saying Garth Brooks isn’t [a truth teller], I’m just saying there are little red flags in that statement,” she noted. Though Aidala said there could be a reason for that. “There may have been sexual interaction between Garth Brooks and this woman,” he said. “It just wasn’t a rape.
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Aidala and Eiglarsh by tuning in to episode 911 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.