{"id":48732,"date":"2025-05-08T01:53:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T05:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/smokey-robinsons-victory-lap-upended-by-allegations-of-sexual-assault\/08\/05\/2025\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T01:53:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T05:53:20","slug":"smokey-robinsons-victory-lap-upended-by-allegations-of-sexual-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/smokey-robinsons-victory-lap-upended-by-allegations-of-sexual-assault\/08\/05\/2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Smokey Robinson\u2019s Victory Lap Upended by Allegations of Sexual Assault"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At 85, the Motown legend Smokey Robinson was on something of a celebratory tour. With a new album to promote, he <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/springsteenarchives.org\/american-music-honors\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">shared the stage with Bruce Springsteen<\/a> last month, performed last week on ABC\u2019s \u201c<a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aCJu8IvR1l4\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jimmy Kimmel Live!<\/a>\u201d and was in the midst of playing a series of <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/smokeyrobinson.com\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">live dates<\/a> in the United States and the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI feel wonderful,\u201d he told <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.etonline.com\/media\/videos\/why-smokey-robinson-85-says-hell-never-stop-or-slow-down-exclusive-235095\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Entertainment Tonight<\/a> in a recent interview. \u201cI pray every night before we go on that we can be entertaining and uplifting to the people who are there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But on Tuesday, Mr. Robinson\u2019s victory lap was upended when four women who had worked as housekeepers for him filed a lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault, claiming in the suit that he abused them dozens of times over many years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The suit, filed in Los Angeles, identifies the women only as Jane Does 1 through 4. They each accuse Mr. Robinson of raping them repeatedly while they were employed cleaning his home in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, as well as in his other homes in Ventura County, Calif., and Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Three of the women said they feared reporting Mr. Robinson to the authorities because of their immigration status, according to the lawsuit, which also accuses Mr. Robinson and his wife of false imprisonment, creating a hostile work environment and failure to pay minimum wage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Late Wednesday night, in a statement to The New York Times, a lawyer for Mr. Robinson called the lawsuit \u201can ugly method of trying to extract money from an 85-year-old American icon.\u201d The lawyer, Christopher Frost, called the accusations in the lawsuit \u201cfalse\u201d and<span class=\"css-8l6xbc evw5hdy0\">  <\/span>\u201cvile.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The lawsuit goes into graphic detail about the abuse claims.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Court papers say that Mr. Robinson would drop off his wife at the nail salon and rush home to assault one woman while she was alone. A second woman, the suit says, had worked for the Robinsons from 2014 to 2020 and had been sexually assaulted by Mr. Robinson at least 23 times during that period. The suit says that a third woman who worked for the Robinsons from 2012 to 2024 reported being sexually assaulted by Mr. Robinson at least 20 times. A fourth woman says in the suit that she worked for the couple from 2006 until April 2024 and had been sexually assaulted by Mr. Robinson at several of his homes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Lawyers for the plaintiffs, who did not immediately provide additional details about the case on Wednesday, have not said whether their clients intended to pursue criminal charges. A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s department, which covers the area where the lawsuit said that incidents had occurred, said the department was not investigating the allegations because they were part of a civil matter. Law enforcement agencies in other municipalities where, according to the lawsuit, crimes occurred, said they had no record of reports of assaults.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Frost said that he and his legal team would soon ask a judge to dismiss the lawsuit and \u201cwill have more to say on this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe ask anyone following this case to reserve judgment as the evidence comes to light and all the actual facts of the case unfold,\u201d Mr. Frost said in the statement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Public records show that Mr. Robinson has been a defendant in a handful of civil lawsuits over the years, for disputes that include breach of contract, copyright issues and royalty payments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Robinson was Motown royalty, writing and performing some of the most beloved hits in the catalog with the Miracles. He wrote (solo and with others) classic songs including \u201cShop Around,\u201d \u201cYou\u2019ve Really Got a Hold on Me,\u201d \u201cThe Tracks of My Tears,\u201d \u201cGoing to a Go-Go,\u201d \u201cI Second That Emotion\u201d and \u201cThe Tears of a Clown.\u201d He also wrote or co-wrote many hits for other artists, including \u201cMy Girl,\u201d for the Temptations, and \u201cMy Guy,\u201d for Mary Wells.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Even as he has became an octogenarian, Mr. Robinson \u2014 who has been honored over the years by the Recording Academy, the Kennedy Center and the Rock &amp; Roll Hall of Fame, among many others \u2014 has been prolific. He released a studio album in 2023 called \u201cGasms\u201d that was filled with sensual tracks, an effort that drew renewed attention from some fans on social media on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201c\u2018Gasm\u2019 is any good feeling you might have,\u201d he told Mr. Kimmel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Now, Mr. Robinson, who is credited with more than 4,000 songs, is out with a new album titled \u201cWhat the World Needs Now\u201d and taking part in a media blitz to promote it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He is scheduled to play a show on Friday in Biloxi, Miss., at a 1,600-seat casino theater. Representatives for the concert venue did not respond Wednesday to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Asked about the new album\u2019s title in the interview with Entertainment Tonight, Mr. Robinson said: \u201cIt\u2019s so timely, man. What the world needs now is love.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Kitty Bennett<!-- --> contributed research.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/05\/07\/arts\/music\/smokey-robinson-sexual-assault.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At 85, the Motown legend Smokey Robinson was on something of a celebratory tour. With a new album to promote, he shared<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/smokey-robinsons-victory-lap-upended-by-allegations-of-sexual-assault\/08\/05\/2025\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/05\/07\/multimedia\/07cul-smokey-robinson-01-tgmp\/07cul-smokey-robinson-01-tgmp-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_video_url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aCJu8IvR1l4","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48732"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}