Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee is once again facing a lawsuit alleging he sexually assaulted a woman during a helicopter flight in 2003.
Heather Taylor originally sued Lee for sexual battery in 2023, but a Los Angeles judge ruled that she couldn’t overcome a statute of limitations that made the claims too old. California later passed a new law that opened a two-year window for otherwise time-barred sexual assault claims starting in 2026, and Taylor has now taken advantage by refiling her lawsuit on Tuesday (Jan. 20).
Related
“Ms. Taylor suffered a horrible and life-altering sexual assault at the hands of Mr. Lee, as described in her complaint, and she is determined to see that justice is done here,” Taylor’s lawyer, Jeffrey Reeves, told Billboard on Tuesday. “Ms. Taylor filed her complaint in compliance with California’s newly enacted ‘Justice for Survivors of Sexual Assault Act’ and looks forward to holding Mr. Lee accountable for the unspeakable harm he has caused her.”
The new lawsuit tells much the same story as the original: Taylor was invited in 2003 to take a helicopter ride from San Diego to Los Angeles with pilot David Martz, whom she’d met through her job as a bank teller. Taylor says Lee’s presence on board was a surprise, and she alleges the rock star and Martz drank alcohol, smoked marijuana and snorted cocaine during the flight before Lee assaulted her.
Taylor claims that Lee forcibly kissed and groped her, penetrated her with his fingers and tried to force her to perform oral sex. Martz, who died in a plane crash in 2015, allegedly sat by and laughed during the assault.
Related
Taylor originally sued Lee under California’s Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act, which created a three-year window for sex assault victims to sue regardless of the statute of limitations between 2023 and 2026. But that law required plaintiffs to show that their perpetrators had engaged in a “cover-up,” and Judge Holly J. Fujie ruled in 2024 that Taylor didn’t meet that standard.
Judge Fujie’s ruling allowed Taylor a chance to amend her complaint, but she chose at the time to instead drop the case and wait for California to pass another law: Assembly Bill 250, known as the Justice for Survivors of Sexual Assault Act. This statute, which took effect Jan. 1, creates an additional two-year claims window for sex assault victims running through 2027, this time with looser requirements around cover-ups.
“Though Mr. Lee and his attorneys understood full well that the dismissal of the prior complaint had nothing to do with the merits of Ms. Taylor’s claims against him, Mr. Lee’s lawyers misleadingly touted this technical dismissal as ‘a complete vindication’ and derided her allegations as ‘false and bogus,” added Reeves in his Tuesday statement to Billboard. “Today’s filing squarely lays this false public narrative to rest.”
Reps for Lee did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday.
Lee isn’t the only rocker currently dealing with California’s new so-called “lookback window.” Two weeks ago, Marilyn Manson’s former assistant argued that Assembly Bill 250 should allow her to reopen her own dismissed sexual assault claims against the singer. That request remains pending.
