Pop star Kesha has filed a lawsuit against her longtime producer Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald, accusing him of sexual assault and battery. She also claimed in the lawsuit that the renowned producer controlled her life for a decade since he induced her to drop out of high school at the age of 18.
According to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court obtained by Hollywood Reporter, Kesha, whose full name is Kesha Rose Sebert, claimed that Dr. Luke forced her to snort illegal drugs before getting on a plane and forced himself on her while she was drugged during the trip.
The 27-year-old singer, who is known for her hit single "Tik Tok, alleged in her complaint that Dr. Luke forced her to drink with him on one occasion and gave her "sober pills", which she claimed was a date rape drug.
"Ms. Sebert took the pills and woke up the following afternoon, naked in Dr. Luke's bed, sore and sick, with no memory of how she got there. Ms. Sebert immediately called her mother and made a 'fresh complaint,' telling her that she was naked in Dr. Luke's hotel room, she did not know where the clothes were, that Dr. Luke had raped her, and that she needed to go to the emergency room," said the lawsuit.
The singer also accused Dr. Luke of controlling her career by threatening to ruin her and her family if she made the abuse public. She added that she was forced into a one-sided long contract, denying her "any meaningful profit from her work due to Dr. Luke's exploitation of her over the last decade." She also alleged that he told her that she was lucky to have him, as she has no looks and talent.
Dr. Luke has been accused of sexual assault and battery, sexual harassment, gender violence, civil harassment, unfair business, and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress in the lawsuit filed the singer's lawyer, Mark Geragos, on her behalf, according the daily. The singer has sought to release her from contract with Dr. Luke and allow her to sign contracts with other recording companies.
"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 an instance of sexual assault at the hands of Dr. Luke," Geragos told NBC News in a statement.
"The facts presented in our lawsuit paint a picture of a man who is controlling and willing to commit horrible acts of abuse in an attempt to intimidate an impressionable, talented, young female artist into submission for his personal gain. Kesha is focused on moving her life and her career beyond this terrible time," he added.
Meanwhile, Dr. Luke has filed a countersuit against Kesha for defamation and breach of contract in Supreme Court of New York County. He claimed that the singer and her mother were trying to exhort him with fabricated allegations in an attempt to end her contract with him.
"As set forth in the complaint that we have filed on behalf of Dr. Luke, 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," Dr. Luke's attorney, Christine Lepera, told Rolling Stone magazine.
"These are allegations that Kesha and Pebe have themselves admitted are false. The complaint explains that Kesha and her mother Pebe have wielded these defamatory statements in an attempt to extort Gottwald into releasing Kesha from her exclusive recording agreement with Dr. Luke," she added.
However, Kesha's lawyer, Geragos, termed Dr. Luke's lawsuit as another attempt to contol his client's career.
"This is just another pathetic and entirely predictable example of Dr. Luke's continued abuse, and a misguided attempt to keep Kesha under his tyrannical control," Geragos told the magazine. "This lawsuit has absolutely no basis in fact, the law or reality. Kesha is focused on reclaiming her voice and her freedom. She is determined to move on with her life and her career by putting this dark period behind her."
