Kesha Sexual Abuse Case Updates

According to the Hollywood Reporter, last week Kesha filed a lawsuit against the producer Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald for sexual abuse. The case began when Kesha was 18 years old and dropped out of high school at Dr. Luke’s suggestion. She eventually signed with Dr. Luke in 2005. The filed suit claims that Dr. Luke raped Ms. Sebert (Kesha) and threatened her and her family if she ever went public with the allegations. Yet, on Tuesday, a deposition from a previous 2010 case involving Ms. Sebert and her managers at DAS Communications, was unsealed. In the sworn testimony she denied that Dr. Luke made any sexual advances, and when questioned about certain instances of sexual misconduct, she replied “I don’t remember.” While the deposition likely will reduce the credibility of Ms. Sebert’s claims, her lawyer states that her denial in the deposition was the result of fear. He analogizes to cases involving battered women in which statements are coerced as a result of fear of retaliation from the defendant against the plaintiff and her family. There still remains the possibility that Ms. Sebert’s claims will be bolstered by the previous ligation. In that case, she told her previous manager at DAS that Dr. Luke “engaged in certain unethical and unlawful actions against her.” In the coming weeks, the court will need to decide whether to credit the disposition from the DAS suit.