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Dr Luke’s lawyers accuse Kesha and her management of drawing up “malicious plot” against him

By | Published on Tuesday 28 August 2018

Dr Luke

Dr Luke’s legal team has used the unsealing of various documents in the producer’s defamation case against Kesha to launch a new attack on her claims that he raped her.

The producer’s lawyers say that the documents show that claim was always false, concocted by Kesha and her representatives to try to get her out of her deals with Luke’s companies. Her lawyers dispute this interpretation.

Among the documents, a series of emails show – say Luke’s lawyers – that Kesha’s managers Jack Rovner and Ken Levitan, along with music industry veteran Irving Azoff, “maliciously plotted to destroy Dr Luke’s business and reputation to pressure him to give in”. In one 2013 email, Levitan writes to Rovner, “Let’s battle this guy in the press. Take down his business”.

This, say Luke’s lawyers, proves that the rape claims are false and were invented specifically to harm the producer’s reputation. Those claims have been the subject of various lawsuits in various states, though all but Luke’s defamation action have now been withdrawn or dismissed.

Another of the unsealed documents is a deposition from Katy Perry, in which she denies she was raped by Luke. Allegations involving Perry have appeared before in this long-running case. Earlier this year the producer’s legal team fought to have a text message sent by Kesha to Lady Gaga claiming Luke had assaulted Perry included in his defamation case.

In the newly unsealed deposition, Perry – who worked with Luke on a number of her albums – repeatedly states that he never raped her. Or that they have had any sort of relationship beyond their professional connection.

“The false narrative Kesha created about being raped became widely accepted, damaging Dr Luke’s reputation irreparably”, say his lawyers in a new statement. “Compounding this malicious act, in 2016, Kesha told Lady Gaga that Dr Luke raped Katy Perry, which is outrageous and untrue. Katy Perry testified under oath in this case that Dr Luke never raped her”.

“Regardless, Kesha refused to apologise”, they go on. “Instead, she issued a press release which again irresponsibly suggested that Katy Perry was actually raped by Dr Luke. It seems that Kesha wanted to perpetuate the falsehood that Dr Luke raped Katy Perry”.

Elsewhere, the lawyers give Luke’s account of the night on which Kesha claims she was drugged and raped. This account states that both attended a party at Paris Hilton’s house. After Kesha became drunk and vomited in a cupboard, she was taken out of the party and to Luke’s nearby hotel room, where she fell asleep. The statement says that he slept on the sofa and had no sexual or physical contact with her.

Among the arguments used to rebut Kesha’s version of what happened, the statement points to a song she and her mother wrote after that night called ‘Paris Hilton’s Closet’. The lyrics include the chorus: “I threw up in Paris Hilton’s closet / I got drunk and totally lost it / When I woke up, the first thing that I thought of was, ‘Oh my Kesha, those hot Jimmy Choos. Hey Paris, did I lose it on that pair too?'”

“That the Seberts made light of that night speaks volumes about what actually happened”, say the lawyers.

“There is nothing worse than abuse and sexual assault”, the statement concludes. “Dr Luke supports any woman or man who seeks to address sexual abuse in the legal system. That is not what happened here. It is also horrendous to falsely accuse someone of a heinous act. That is what has happened here. Kesha’s voluntarily dismissed rape claim has caused great harm to Dr Luke, his family, and his businesses”.

In response, Kesha’s lawyers said in their own statement: “Contrary to Dr Luke’s legal team’s assertion that today’s evidentiary record reveals something Kesha doesn’t want the public to see, Kesha has consistently requested that the evidence in the case be unsealed, while Dr Luke has fought vigorously to keep the evidence from seeing the light of day. Kesha looks forward to defeating Dr Luke’s meritless $40+ million damage claims at summary judgment or trial”.



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