Steven Tyler Faces Sexual Assault Lawsuit From Second Woman

A second woman has accused Steven Tyler of sexual assault and filed a lawsuit against the Aerosmith singer on Thursday.

The lawsuit comes from former child model Jeanne Bellino, who said she met Tyler in New York in the summer of 1975 when she was 17 and he was 27. Bellino claimed she and a friend were supposed to meet the band at the Warwick Hotel in New York City. While walking down Sixth Avenue with Tyler and an entourage, Bellino allegedly questioned Tyler about his lyrics, at which point he forced her into a phone booth and assaulted her.

“While holding her captive, Tyler stuck his tongue down her throat, and put his hands upon her body, her breasts, her buttocks and her genitals, moving and removing clothing and pinning her against the wall of the phone booth,” the lawsuit says (via Rolling Stone). “As Tyler was mauling and groping Plaintiff, he was humping her pretending to have sex with Plaintiff. Others stood by outside the phone booth laughing and as passersby watched and witnessed, nobody in the entourage intervened.”

Bellino added that “Tyler’s penis was erect and it was evident to her as he rubbed it against her that he was not wearing underwear and wearing thin pants.” She eventually escaped the phone booth “in shock and fear.” During the ordeal, she alleged, “Tyler’s bandmates and members of the entourage watched, laughed and did nothing to intercede.”

Following the phone booth incident, Bellino and the rest of the group went to the Warwick Hotel, where Tyler allegedly began grinding against Bellino and forcibly kissing her despite her resistance. The singer allegedly said he was “going in my room to do something quick” and would summon her to his room after that.

Later, an associate of Tyler’s allegedly told Bellino — who “couldn’t talk and was paralyzed” out of fear — that she could go up to his room. Instead, she “bolted toward the door” of the hotel, where a doorman who had witnessed the previous incident “flung her” into a cab and told the driver to go. This was reportedly the only day they encountered each other.

Bellino claimed in her suit that she “has suffered and will continue to suffer, great pain of mind and body, severe and permanent emotional distress, physical manifestations of emotional distress, embarrassment, humiliation, physical, personal and psychological injuries” as a result of the alleged assault. She was allegedly hospitalized and medicated after the incident, and she still needs medication “to cope with the sexual assault and has suffered long-term physical injury associated with the trauma.”

Previous Sexual Assault Allegations Against Steven Tyler

This is not the first sexual assault allegation levied against Tyler. Last December, Julia Misley — formerly known as Julia Holcomb — filed a lawsuit against the singer in which she accused him of committing sexual assault and battery when she was 16 and he was 25.

In his 2011 memoir Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?, Tyler wrote that he “almost took a teen bride” and boasted that the girl’s parents “signed a paper over for me to have custody, so I wouldn’t get arrested if I took her out of state.” Misley claimed in her suit that his statements in the book “intentionally inflicted emotional distress.”

Tyler admitted in a court response that he had sex with Misley, but said her assault and battery claims were invalid “because of immunity to defendant as caretaker/guardian.” The singer also tried to get a portion of the lawsuit thrown out, citing his right to freedom of speech. “The conduct complained of arises out of statements made in Tyler’s published memoirs,” the singer’s attorneys argued. “Such conduct implicates Tyler’s right to free speech.”