A judge in Los Angeles has reinstated a lawsuit against heavy metal star Marilyn Manson under a new law enabling old sexual assault cases to be heard in court.
The lawsuit, filed in May 2021 by a former assistant to the musician, had been dismissed in December because it exceeded the statute of limitations, a maximum time period for initiating legal proceedings after the related events took place.
But plaintiff Ashley Walters asked the court to reconsider her case in January, when a new law mandated a two-year window for the consideration of sexual assault cases that had already expired under the statute.
The lawsuit was accepted by the same Los Angeles superior court judge who had dismissed it the month before.
“I looked at this closely,” Judge Steve Cochran said at a hearing on Monday. “I do think the statute revives the claim.”
Walters alleges the rocker sexually assaulted her when she worked for his Manson Records between 2010 and 2011.
She also claims that Manson, whose real name is Brian Hugh Warner, boasted about raping women and even showed her a video in which he was abusing a minor girl.
Manson’s lawyer Howard King said the lawsuit would fail.
“While Ms Walters made several now-irrelevant claims about so-called workplace harassment, she has no pending claims for sexual assault as defined in the penal code, as would be required under the new law, nor is she permitted under the ruling to add new claims,” King said in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse on Tuesday.
“The undeniable fact is that Mr Warner never committed any sexual assault,” he added.
Several women have accused Manson, 57, of sexual abuse and assault over the years, including Game of Thrones actor Esmé Bianco and Westworld actor Evan Rachel Wood.
Bianco sued Manson in a case that has been settled, while Manson sued Wood for defamation, accusing her and another woman of fabricating accusations against him and convincing others to do the same. A judge then threw out significant sections of the suit, before Manson agreed to drop it and pay Wood’s attorney fees.
One case against Manson, alleging sexual assault and domestic violence between 2009 and 2011, was dismissed in January 2025 after a years-long investigation, again because it fell outside of the statute of limitations.
Last year the first UK concert of his One Assassination Under God Tour was cancelled after pressure from campaign groups and an MP.
