By ANDREW DALTON
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division stated Thursday that it has opened a prison investigation into rape and sexual assault allegations in opposition to Smokey Robinson.
The division stated in an announcement that its Particular Victims Bureau is “actively investigating criminal allegations” in opposition to Robinson. The assertion stated the probe is in its early phases, and no different particulars can be supplied.
Final week, 4 former housekeepers of Robinson filed a lawsuit alleging that the Motown music luminary repeatedly sexually assaulted and raped them whereas they labored for him.
The swimsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court docket seeks at the least $50 million in damages over the alleged assaults, which the ladies say befell between 2007 and 2024.
Robinson’s lawyer didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the prison investigation, however beforehand known as the allegations “vile” and “false ” and stated the ladies’s lawsuit was “simply an ugly method of trying to extract money from an 85-year-old American icon.”
John Harris and Herbert Hayden, the attorneys for the ladies, say they’re happy to study that legislation enforcement is trying into the allegations.
“Our clients intend to fully cooperate with LASD’s ongoing investigation in the pursuit of seeking justice for themselves and others that may have been similarly assaulted by him,” the attorneys stated.
Robinson’s lawyer Chris Frost stated final week that the allegations “defy credulity” and are filled with inconsistencies.
The 4 ladies, whose names haven’t been made public, every allege that Smokey Robinson would wait till he was alone with them in his Los Angeles home after which sexually assault and rape them, in some circumstances repeatedly over a few years. One lady stated she labored for Robinson from 2012 till 2024 and was assaulted at the least 20 occasions. One other stated she labored for him from 2014 till 2020 and was assaulted at the least 23 occasions.
Harris known as Robinson a “serial and sick rapist” who have to be stopped.
The entire accusers stated they ultimately give up over the assaults. And all stated they feared coming ahead over fears of retaliation, public disgrace and potential results on their immigration standing.
Robinson was among the many greatest hitmakers of the Nineteen Sixties as a central a part of the Motown Information machine — each along with his group the Miracles and as a solo artist, with songs together with “Tears of a Clown” and “The Tracks of My Tears.”
He’s a member of each the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame and the Songwriters Corridor of Fame.
Initially Revealed: Could 15, 2025 at 6:33 PM EDT
