U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan has dismissed a sexual assault case filed against Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler by model Jeanne Bellino, ruling that Tyler’s actions did not present “serious risk of physical injury” to the plaintiff.
The case pertains to an incident that allegedly took place in 1975, when Bellino was 17. She claimed in her lawsuit that Tyler “stuck his tongue down her throat, and put his hands upon her body, her breasts, her buttocks and her genitals” inside a New York phone booth. She also alleged that the singer rubbed his body on her and pretended to have sex with her while his bandmates and other members of their entourage watched and laughed.
Bellino added that another incident took place later that day in a hotel lobby, forcing her to leave the place.
Claiming that she suffered “great pain of mind and body” and “severe and permanent emotional distress” as a result of the incident, Bellino filed the case under New York City’s Victim of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act, a law which extended the statute of limitations for certain alleged sexual assaults.
However, Kaplan said Bellino waited too long to sue the rock star and ruled that her accusations did not qualify under the law because Tyler’s actions did not pose “serious risk of physical injury.”
Tyler’s lawyer David Long-Daniels told Reuters, “We agree with the judge’s reasoning, and are grateful for this result on behalf of our client.”
Bellino has until March 13 to amend and resubmit her case.
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