Steven Tyler of Aerosmith is currently being sued by a woman that claims to have been allegedly sexually assaulted and battered by the frontman when she was a minor in the 1970s. The plaintiff, Julia Halcomb, was able to file the lawsuit due to California’s Child Victims Act, which temporarily lifts the statute of limitations for alleged survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file complaints. The victim is also suing for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Halcomb allegedly met Tyler at the age of 16 when the musician was 25 in 1973, where they allegedly had a three year relationship. Halcomb alleges that she “was powerless to resist” the singer’s “power, fame, and substantial financial ability,” and that he “coerced and persuaded Plaintiff into believing this was a ‘romantic love affair.’”

While Tyler is not specifically named in the lawsuit, accompanying details align with singer being the complaints defendant. In Rolling Stone’s 1973 profile on Aerosmith, Ed McCormack wrote: “Julia Holcomb is always nearby, trailing in her wistfully towering way off his [Tyler’s] arm like a scarf…” Additionally, in his 2011 memoir, Tyler wrote about a relationship he had with an underage girl.

Halcomb did name Tyler in a statement she released regarding the lawsuit: “I want this action to expose an industry that protects celebrity offenders, to cleanse and hold accountable an industry that both exploited and allowed me to be exploited for years, along with so many other naïve and vulnerable kids and adults. Because I know that I am not the only one who suffered abuse in the music industry, I feel it is time for me to take this stand and bring this action, to speak up and stand in solidarity with the other survivors. I hope that from this action, we can make the music industry safer, expose the predators in it, and expose those forces in the industry that have both enabled and created a culture of permissiveness and self-protection of themselves and the celebrity offenders among them.” (Pitchfork)

 Photo Credit: Marisa Rose Ficara