Former Dream vocalist Melissa Schuman is suing Nick Carter for sexual violence and assault.
In court documents acquired by TMZ on Tuesday, Schuman claimed that the Backstreet Boys member had forced her to engage in oral sex with him in 2003 when she was 18 and he was 22.
She said that Carter, now 43, continued to steal her virginity despite her assurances to him that she was reserving herself for marriage.
Schuman, now 38, said “the Harvey Weinstein allegations” were “a huge trigger” for her when she initially accused the pop singer of raping her at his house in November 2017.
She reported Carter to the Santa Monica Police Department in February of the following year in the hopes that he would be charged with a crime.
But, because the statute of limitations had passed, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office decided against filing charges.
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A California legislation that became effective earlier this year, however, resurrected sexual assault allegations and extended the reporting deadline.
In February, Carter filed a countersuit against Schuman and Shannon Ruth, who had previously sued Him in December 2022 for allegedly raping Ruth on a tour bus in 2001 when she was 17 years old. Carter has always refuted Schuman’s claims of nonconsensual sexual intercourse.
The boy band singer alleged in his countersuit for slander and extortion that the two ladies were part of a “conspiracy” against him.
Melanie Schuman has been spreading this rumor for many years, but her complaint was untrue when she first made it back in 2017 — and it is still inaccurate, according to Carter’s attorney, Liane K. Wakayama, who spoke with media after Schuman filed her lawsuit.
The attorney said, “A Nevada court recently found that there are good reasons for Nick Carter to proceed with his action against Ms. Schuman for conspiring to harm, libel, and extort Nick, his colleagues, his friends, and his family after evaluating the voluminous evidence we set out.”
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This type of attitude, the lawyer observed, “is at once both inevitable and pitiful in light of our accomplishments in Nevada.” But, Nick will remain steadfast in his resolve to hold Ms. Schuman and her accomplices accountable for the enormous agony and suffering their extortionate behavior has caused.
“I’ve received enormous criticism for sticking up for myself,” Schuman said in a statement to The Washington Post. “I am not the first, but my desire is that I am the last.”
It’s time for influential people in the music business to understand that they cannot continue to support and encourage sexual abusers, she continued. I’m working to make the music business a safer environment to operate in.