Marilyn Manson lost his latest bid Friday to shut down a sexual assault lawsuit brought by his former assistant.
A California judge refused to toss or trim the claims in Ashley Walters’ third amended complaint, five months after he revived the case under a new California law that gives older sexual assault claims a two-year lookback window to move forward.
Manson’s lawyer Alexa Foley had argued during the hearing in downtown Los Angeles that Walters’ allegations did not qualify as a revivable under the new law, known as AB250. She tried in vain to convince the court that Walters couldn’t meet the standard of showing she was physically restrained during her alleged sexual assault.
In her third amended complaint, filed in February, Walters alleged that Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, pushed her onto a bed, pinned her arms, and tried to kiss her as she pulled away during an incident at Warner’s West Hollywood home studio in May 2010. She claimed Warner then moved behind her and “bit her ear while grabbing her hand and placing it in his underwear.”
“Walters turned away when he tried to kiss her on the lips,” Foley argued. “She quickly moved away, so she’s no longer restrained at this point. That’s when they allege that he came up behind her, grabbing her hand, and placing her hand in his underwear. At that point, when there is an alleged intimate touching, there’s no restraint.”
The judge wasn’t persuaded, saying it was simply too soon to “be cutting the line that finely.” Walters’ claims, he said, were strong enough to let the case move forward while both sides gather evidence to show whether the alleged sexual assault qualifies for revival under AB 250.
For now, “what’s being alleged, as alleged, would ring that bell,” Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Steve Cochran said. “With allegations like this, you think I’m going to be quibbling with somebody about whether it’s sexual assault or not at the pleading stage? I’d have trouble sleeping.”
Judge Cochran said Walters’ related claims of a cover-up by Warner’s company, Marilyn Manson Records, might be more vulnerable to challenge, given that Walters did not agree to work as Warner’s assistant until after the alleged sexual assault. But he said those claims, too, were strong enough to proceed for now. The judge said Warner and his lawyers could challenge the claims again in a motion for summary judgment, after more evidence has been gathered in the case and the new law has been more fully applied.
“This was not unexpected,” Warner’s lawyer, Howard King, told Rolling Stone outside the courtroom after the ruling. “It’s a clear invitation for a summary judgment motion. The judge telegraphed explicitly that we’re not at the right stage of the case yet.”
Walters’ lawyers, meanwhile, welcomed the Friday ruling. “We are obviously pleased,” attorney Bina Ahmad told Rolling Stone. “We truly take the inspiration to keep fighting from our client. She’s the brave one.”
The judge ordered the parties back for a case management conference in August.
When Cochran revived the lawsuit in January, he said he looked “closely” at AB250. “I do think the statute revives the claim,” he said as he reversed his Dec. 16 dismissal of the long-running case.
Walters’ lawsuit has been working its way through the courts for several years. A different judge dismissed it as untimely in May 2022, but an appellate panel later revived it, giving Walters a chance to prove that trauma-induced memory suppression delayed her filing. When Judge Cochran dismissed the case last year, he found that she failed to make that showing.
Walters first sued Warner in 2021, claiming Warner lured her to his home studio in 2010 after complimenting her photography on social media and floating a possible collaboration. She said Warner asked to photograph her, and she agreed because she “was not opposed to provocative art in theory.” But the encounter took a turn when Warner became aggressive and assaulted her while she was effectively trapped at his home, she says, because he had failed to warn her the adjacent parking lot would lock in her car from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m.
Walters said she later took a job as Warner’s assistant after he dangled the possibility of future professional collaboration and made no overt sexual advances during a follow-up meeting. Once she started working for him, however, Warner allegedly unleashed a campaign of physical and emotional abuse, whipping her, hurling plates at her, forcing her to stand on a chair for long stretches and throwing her into a wall during what she described as drug-fueled rages, according to her lawsuit.
In her lawsuit, Walters alleges that beyond her purported direct abuse at the hands of Warner, she also purportedly witnessed the musician throw a prop skull at his former fiancée, Evan Rachel Wood, “so hard” that it allegedly left “a large, raised welt on her stomach.” She claims she also would sneak food and drinks to Warner’s “starving and distraught” girlfriends while they hid in a guest bathroom. Warner has denied the allegations.
Walters first stepped forward in February 2021 as multiple women, including Wood, accused Warner of physical and emotional abuse. Rolling Stone published a lengthy investigation in late 2021 after speaking with more than 55 sources about the allegations. Warner, 57, reached out-of-court settlements with two of his accusers, including actress Esmé Bianco. He previously decided to abandon claims of defamation and harassment filed against Wood.
There’s no immediate resolution in any of this. There’s no surrender either — and a lot of great escape. White’s slide guitar in “Dollar Bill” sounds like a National Steel on steroids until the solo, when it turns into what seems like a theremin gone postal. “I Can’t Believe What I’m Hearing” has a great pop-wise chorus closer to the Pretty Things than Son House. And don’t miss White’s wry aside to the White Stripes’ old creation myth in the second verse of “G.O.D.,” on the way to the real business at hand. “Well, it’s the beginning of the world now,” he declares at the song’s end. “Let’s do it all over again.”
