Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter has answered Melissa Schuman’s rape lawsuit in California with a cross-complaint seeking $2.5 million in damages for alleged defamation and interference with existing and prospective business contracts.
The new complaint, which claims Schuman “falsely accused” Carter in 2017 due to a “thirst for Internet relevance,” mirrors a similar defamation action Carter filed against Schuman last year in Clark County, Nevada. That prior claim surfaced in a cross-complaint to a sexual battery lawsuit filed by Shannon Ruth, a different rape accuser who alleges Carter vaginally penetrated her on a tour bus in 2001 when she was 17 years old. Carter denies the allegations from Schuman and Ruth and alleges in his Nevada filings that the women conspired with Schuman’s dad, Jerome Schuman, to harass, defame, and extort him.
In the Nevada dispute based in Las Vegas, Carter claims that Ruth’s 2022 lawsuit caused him and the Backstreet Boys to lose $2,350,000 due to the alleged cancellation of promotional events, contracts, and endorsement deals with the TV network ABC, its show Good Morning America, underwear brand MeUndies, travel booking website VRBO, and the gaming platform Roblox.
Carter’s new cross-complaint filed in Los Angeles alleges Schuman’s “defamatory” statements caused Carter to lose $2.5 million worth of partnership and endorsement deals with MeUndies, VRBO, Roblox, and kids clothing label, The Children’s Place.
“Additionally, in the past ten months alone, no less than four venues for Carter’s Who I am solo music tour substantially reduced his compensation in the wake of halted ticket sales that came on the heels of Schuman’s defamatory statements. One such venue completely cancelled Carter’s concert. This also cost Carter hundreds of thousands of dollars,” the new cross-complaint first reported by InTouch and obtained by Rolling Stone reads.
Schuman’s lawyer blasted Carter’s legal maneuver in a statement sent to Rolling Stone. “Carter’s California counter-claim makes the same arguments as his stalled Nevada lawsuit, and both show that his approach to defend sexual assault claims is to attack the victims,” lawyer Karen Barth Mezies said Tuesday.
Schuman, a former member of the girl group DREAM, first sued Carter in April 2023. She alleges the pop idol invited her over to his Santa Monica apartment while they were filming the teen horror film The Hollow. She alleges Carter fed her a sedative-laced cocktail and performed oral sex on her over her protests before raping her on a bed. She was 18 and a virgin at the time while Carter was about 23, according to her lawsuit.
According to his new counter-claim, Carter alleges he and Schuman were “flirtatious with one another” throughout the time in question and “ultimately engaged in consensual sex.”
“At no point in time did Carter sexually assault Schuman or any other person,” his new filing states. “Shortly thereafter, Schuman happily and enthusiastically agreed to perform a musical duet with Carter and further perform with him at a live showcase.”
In the recently released Investigation Discovery docuseries Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter, Schuman alleges she felt pressured into recording the duet with Carter by her management at the time. She further claims she didn’t know Carter would be at the showcase until it was too late.
Beyond Schuman and Ruth, a third accuser filed a sexual assault lawsuit against Carter last year. In that complaint, accuser Ashley Repp alleges Carter raped her multiple times in Florida in 2003 when she was 15 years old and he was 23.
Schuman, Ruth, and Repp all participated in the Fallen Idols docuseries about Carter that premiered on May 27. Carter’s lawyers responded by blasting the women’s on-camera interviews.
“These are exactly the same outrageous claims that led us to sue this gang of conspirators. Those cases are working their way through the legal system now, and, based on both the initial court rulings and the overwhelming evidence, we have every belief that we will prevail and hold them accountable for spreading these falsehoods,” Carter’s lawyers, Liane Wakayama and Dale Hayes Jr., said in a statement.
