Backstreet Boy Nick Carter Sued for Alleged Rape of 17-Year-Old Girl On Tour Bus
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Accuser Shannon "Shay" Ruth alleges Carter fed her an alcoholic beverage and sexually assaulted her in 2001
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Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys during 2005 MuchMusic Video Awards - Show at CHUM CITY TV Building in Toronto, Canada. Marc Andrew Deley/FilmMagic
Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter is facing a new claim he raped a 17-year-old girl on a bus during the boy band's Black & Blue concert tour in 2001.
Accuser Shannon "Shay" Ruth filed a sexual battery lawsuit in Clark County, Nevada, on Thursday claiming Carter picked her out of a line of fans seeking autographs at the Tacoma Dome in Washington and invited her to join him on his tour bus when she was an unsuspecting virgin.
Ruth, who says she lives with autism and cerebral palsy, alleges Carter, who would have been 21 at the time, fed her a pink drink dubbed "VIP juice" that tasted alcoholic, ordered her to get on her knees, pulled down his pants and insisted she perform oral sex on him. She alleges he instructed her on how to proceed even though she was crying.
Now 39, Ruth alleges Carter, who faced a similar allegation in the past that was not prosecuted, led her to a bed, "pushed" her down and forcefully removed her pants when she resisted. Carter then allegedly attempted to orally copulate Ruth as she "begged him to stop," the lawsuit obtained by Rolling Stone states.
"Carter told her to 'Shh!' as he laid on top of her and said it would be our 'special secret,'" the filing continues, alleging that Carter vaginally penetrated Ruth.
"The last 21 years have been filled with pain, confusion, frustration, shame, and self-harm that are a direct result of Nick Carter raping me," Ruth said at a press conference with her lawyer Mark Boskovich in Beverly Hills on Thursday.
"Even though I'm autistic and live with cerebral palsy, I believe nothing has affected me more …than what Nick Carter did to me," Ruth said, struggling to hold back tears.
She claimed Carter turned "nasty and threatening" when she told him she was going to report the incident. "After he raped me, I remember him calling me a 'retarded bitch' and grabbing me and leaving bruises on my arm," she said.
"Carter tried to scare me into silence," she claimed, saying he told her "he'd turn people against me because he was Nick Carter and had the power to wreck my life."
"I felt like I had nowhere to turn," she said. "I truly believed if I told anyone, I would go to jail."
Carter denied the allegations through a statement released by his lawyer Thursday night.
"This claim about an incident that supposedly took place more than 20 years ago is not only legally meritless but also entirely untrue," the statement from lawyer Michael Holtz reads. "Unfortunately, for several years now, Ms. Ruth has been manipulated into making false allegations about Nick – and those allegations have changed repeatedly and materially over time. No one should be fooled by a press stunt orchestrated by an opportunistic lawyer – there is nothing to this claim whatsoever, which we have no doubt the courts will quickly realize."
The lawsuit comes after Melissa Schuman, a former member of teen-pop group Dream, stepped forward in 2017 and accused Carter of sexually assaulting her in 2003, around the time they were shooting the 2004 made-for-TV movie "The Hollow," when she was 18 years old.
Los Angeles County prosecutors investigated Schuman's claim and ultimately declined to file a case, saying the allegation was outside the 10-year statute of limitations.
In a blog post that's no longer active, Schuman said Carter invited her and a friend to his Santa Monica residence for a "casual hangout." Schuman said she also was a virgin at the time and that Carter allegedly poured shots and then took her to a bathroom where he performed oral sex on her over her protests.
"I told him to stop, but he didn't. So I turned off the bathroom light so I wouldn't see anything. He kept turning the light back on because he told me he wanted to look at me," she wrote.
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"I am shocked and saddened by Ms. Schuman's accusations. Melissa never expressed to me while we were together or at any time since that anything we did was not consensual," Carter said in a statement to Rolling Stone at the time. "This is the first that I am hearing about these accusations, nearly two decades later. It is contrary to my nature and everything I hold dear to intentionally cause someone discomfort or harm."
The new lawsuit filed Thursday also alleges three women identified only as Jane Does have accused Carter of similar behavior. It claims Jane Doe 2 was a 15-year-old girl at the time of her alleged abuse in 2003 and says she contracted HPV from Carter, an allegation also made by Ruth.
Jane Doe 1 similarly alleges abuse in 2003, and Jane Doe 3 alleges she was sexually assaulted by Carter at a house party in Key West, Florida, in 2006, the filing states.
Boskovich said during the press conference that the lawsuit is withholding the women's names "to preserve their privacy until they're ready to speak themselves." He said his team has interviewed the women.
Ruth's civil action is seeking monetary damages for past and future pain and suffering as well as punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial.
Backstreet Boys,