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Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter seen in a promotional photo in 2014, was accused by a woman Monday, of sexually assaulting her on multiple occasions in 2003, when she was 15 and he was 23 in a Las Vegas federal court, on Monday Aug. 28, 2023,
Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023 | 8:40 p.m.
LOS ANGELES — A third woman has sued Nick Carter for alleged sexual assault and is accusing the Backstreet Boys performer of forcing her to have sex with him on multiple occasions in 2003 when she was 15 and he was 23.
The 10-page complaint obtained by the Los Angeles Times was filed Monday in federal court in Las Vegas, where Carter lives, alleges sexual battery and intentional and negligent emotional distress and seeks $15,000 in damages. The suit further alleges that the singer — whose legal name is Nickolas Carter — infected her with HPV during three alleged assaults in Florida. The woman, identified only as "A.R.," is the third to come forward against Carter, accusing the pop singer of sexual assault in the early 2000s during the height of his fame.
"We hope that A.R. receives some measure of justice and that this lawsuit will pave the way for other survivors to hold their abusers to account," attorney Margaret Mabie said in a statement. Mabie, with the New York-based Marsh Law Firm, filed the lawsuit on A.R.'s behalf.
In December, Shannon "Shay" Ruth alleged that Carter sexually assaulted her and infected her with HPV in February 2001 after a Backstreet Boys concert in Tacoma, Washington, when she was 17 and he was 21; and in April, Melissa Schuman, a former member of the 2000s girl group Dream, accused Carter of sexually assaulting her in 2002 in Santa Monica when she was 18 and he was 22.
Carter's attorney, Dale A. Hayes Jr., called the allegations in the most recent lawsuit "ridiculous" in a statement to the Times. He noted that the same woman first accused Carter in criminal investigations in Florida, where the alleged incidents took place, and Pennsylvania, where A.R. lived in 2003. Authorities declined to file charges against Carter the following year, Hayes said, citing police reports.
"Repeating the same false allegations in a new legal complaint doesn't make them any more true," Hayes continued in the statement. "Nick is looking forward to the evidence being presented and the truth about these malicious schemes coming to light."
Hayes is also representing Carter in the lawsuit filed against him in December involving Ruth. Hayes told the Times in a phone call Wednesday that he is anxious to litigate the case, but added that he would be seeking to combine both lawsuits into a single case.
Carter and A.R. were familiar with each other prior to the alleged incidents, the lawsuit says. Carter's friends and family, including A.R., had gathered on his family's yacht in Marathon, Florida, in late August 2003. While there, the suit alleges, Carter knew A.R. was a minor but gave her alcohol, kissed her and later directed her to a bedroom in the yacht where he allegedly forced her to have sex with him without her consent. Carter told A.R. to keep the incident a secret, the court documents say.
Several days later, in early September, the suit alleges, the singer and his sister, Angel Carter, encouraged A.R. to meet Nick Carter in the lounge area of a bus on the Carters' Florida property. A.R. complied, and Carter allegedly forced her to give him oral sex on the bus, the suit says.
A third incident is alleged to have taken place in late October of that year during another yacht gathering. The suit says Carter forced A.R. to have sex with him, while she was drunk, inside the yacht's cabin. Carter allegedly encouraged three other men who were at the party to watch through a bedroom window. "Carter continued to engage in sexual intercourse with A.R. despite her repeated refusals and requests for him to stop," the lawsuit said.
The suit says Carter transmitted the human papillomavirus, or HPV, to the woman as a result of the alleged assaults.
That December, A.R.'s mother reported the alleged incidents to authorities in Southern York County in Pennsylvania. The woman said in the lawsuit that she had been subject to "ongoing harassment" from Backstreet Boys fans for decades, since filing that report.
That case wasn't the last criminal investigation into sexual assault allegations made against Carter.
In 2017, Schuman accused Carter of raping her in the early 2000s, but prosecutors declined to file charges because the statute of limitations had expired. Carter denied raping Schuman. His attorneys have referred to the previous criminal cases as proof that their client is not culpable.
Even so, one of A.R.'s attorneys, John Kawai, addressed the claims, saying Wednesday, "Abusers can take notice that just because they avoided prison doesn't mean they don't have to answer to a jury for their actions."
In February, the Backstreet Boys singer countersued Ruth, the woman who sued Carter in December for the alleged 2001 assault. He accused Ruth of being an "opportunist" who took advantage of the #MeToo movement and conspired with a previous accuser and her father to defame and extort him. He also alleged the parents of Schuman, who sued Carter in April, had groomed Ruth to make the allegations against him.
The countersuit described the assault allegations as "the culmination of an approximate five-year conspiracy orchestrated by" Ruth and the Schumans "to harass, defame and extort Carter." It said the goal of the lawsuit was to interfere with Carter's business opportunities and give the accuser their moment of fame.
Since Ruth filed her lawsuit, Carter and the Backstreet Boys have lost more than $2 million due to show cancellations and lost endorsement deals with entities including ABC, "Good Morning America," VRBO and Roblox, the counterclaim said.
Even so, despite the allegations, Carter continued touring with Backstreet Boys on the international leg of the group's tour, which stretched from 2022 into this past spring. He is scheduled to go on a solo tour with 12 dates in October.
Though Carter has yet to personally address the most recent allegations, in recent days he has continued to post photos and video on social media promoting his new solo music and the tour with his boy band and has shared bits about his family life with his three young children.
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Los Angeles Times staff writers Nardine Saad and Christi Carras and researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report.
