Artist News Legal

Kesha and Dr Luke enter legal battle over sexual assault allegations

By | Published on Wednesday 15 October 2014

Kesha

Kesha has made a number of serious allegations against pop producer Dr Luke, real name Lukasz Gottwald, whose label and music publishing outfit she signed to aged eighteen.

The singer says Gottwald forced her to “take drugs and alcohol in order to take advantage of her sexually while she was intoxicated”. The claims appear in a lawsuit filed by Kesha against Gottwald in the LA courts, which also accuses the producer of actual rape, and of creating an environment that led to the singer suffering from bulimia.

Pre-empting any questions as to why she hadn’t aired these allegations earlier, the lawsuit says Kesha feared for her career if she spoke out against Gottwald, adding that “she lived in a prison of his abuse and was terrified of speaking, messaging, tweeting or doing anything at all that he might disapprove of in the event that he would later use it to torture her and her family, as he had done so many times before”.

But Gottwald has quickly hit back at Kesha’s litigation, denying all the allegations and arguing that her claims are part of the singer’s bid to get out of her contractual commitments to him and his companies. The producer is already counter-suing, accusing Kesha and her mother of defamation, breach of contract and contractual interference.

Sky News quotes Gottwald’s legal rep Christine Lepera as saying: “Kesha and her mother are engaged in a campaign of publishing outrageous and untrue statements about Dr Luke to third parties, including scurrilous and false statements of purported physical and mental abuse of Kesha. [We are confident Gottwald will] prevail in all matters, and that our client will be awarded substantial damages for this malicious conduct”.

But Kesha’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, countered: “This lawsuit is a wholehearted effort by Kesha to regain control of her music career and her personal freedom after suffering for ten years as a victim of mental manipulation, emotional abuse and sexual assault at the hands of Dr Luke”.



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