A civil lawsuit filed last week in New York State Supreme Court accuses legendary songwriter Bob Dylan of sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl in 1965.
The woman, who is now 68 years old and identified in the complaint as “J.C.,” alleges she was subdued with drugs and alcohol then repeatedly assaulted and molested over a six-week period — between April and May 1965 — at Dylan’s apartment inside the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan.
The budding songwriter was 24 years old at the time.
“Dylan exploited his status as a musician by grooming J.C. to gain her trust and to obtain control over her as part of his plan to sexually molest and abuse J.C.,” the lawsuit claims.
The legal action, which seeks unspecified punitive and monetary damages, also alleges Dylan “established an emotional connection” with his accuser and made “threats of physical violence” that left the young girl “emotionally scarred and psychologically damaged to this day.”
The lawsuit, first reported by Page Six on Monday, specifically mentions assault, battery, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The 80-year-old Dylan, whose real name is Robert Allen Zimmerman, proclaimed his innocence through a spokesperson, who called the woman’s claims “untrue” and said Dylan would “be vigorously defended,” according to numerous media reports.
The legal action was brought under New York’s Child Victims Act of 2019 and filed just a day before the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse claims was set to expire.
The woman is being represented by attorneys Peter Gleason and Daniel Isaacs, who told People magazine that they “look forward to seeing [Dylan] in a court of law.”
Dylan is a transcendent musical icon whose classic songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and “Like a Rolling Stone” have inspired countless artists around the world.
Considered one of the greatest songwriters of all time, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 2016 “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”
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