Smokey Robinson accused of sexual attack via 4 girls in $50m lawsuit

Motown legend William “Smokey” Robinson has been accused of sexual attack and misconduct via 4 girls – known simplest as Jane Does 1, 2, 3 and 4 – who labored as housekeepers for the Robinsons.

A grievance filed in Los Angeles awesome court docket on 6 May lists fees together with sexual battery, false imprisonment, negligence and gender violence. The grievance seeks $50m general in damages for the 4 girls.

The lawsuit additionally names Robinson’s spouse, Frances Robinson, and lists a litany of alleged exertions violations, together with failure to pay minimal salary, failure to pay extra time, misguided salary statements and adversarial paintings setting.

Smokey Robinson’s towering standing used to be constructed from many years within the song industry, beginning together with his founding of the Motown team the Miracles in 1955. Robinson claims credit score on greater than 4,000 songs, with manufacturing credit together with the Temptations and Marvin Gaye, and he has spots in each the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Halls of Fame.

According to the grievance, filed via Los Angeles-based company Harris & Hayden, Robinson’s larger-than-life standing used to be an intimidating consider coming ahead with the allegations. Attorney John Harris, talking at a Los Angeles information convention, contrasted Robinson’s standing with that of his accusers.

“They’re Hispanic women who were employed by the Robinsons earning below minimum wage,” Harris stated. “As low-wage women in vulnerable positions, they lacked the resources and options necessary to protect themselves from sexual assaults.”

Harris emphasised the vulnerability of Robinson’s accusers.

“They all feared missing a pay day and not being able to pay their rent or buy food for their families,” Harris stated.

The grievance presentations a trend now not simply within the accusers’ backgrounds, however of their allegations. Jane Does 1, 3 and 4 all allege Robinson sexually assaulted them within the “blue bedroom” of his Chatsworth place of dwelling, and laying down a towel to give protection to the mattress sheets previous to the attacks. Jane Doe 4’s account comprises allegations of rape at Robinson’s Las Vegas and Bell Canyon properties. Jane Doe 2’s allegations state that Robinson raped her within the laundry room and storage of his Chatsworth place of dwelling, the place closed-circuit cameras have been not able to look.

“We believe Mr Robinson is a sick and serial rapist that must be stopped,” Harris stated.

All 4 girls additionally allege a adversarial paintings setting from Frances Robinson, and state that she persistently used “ethnically pejorative words and language”. The grievance states that she failed to stop her husband’s sexual attacks, “despite having full knowledge of his prior acts of sexual misconduct, having settled cases with other women that suffered and experienced similar sexual assaults perpetrated by him”.

“We believe she was aware of the misconduct by her husband, Smokey Robinson, and that she used their status as well as the client’s reliance on their living wage in order to keep them in check,” lawyer Herbert Hayden stated.

According to Hayden and Harris, no police stories or felony fees had been filed towards Robinson.