Nick Carter is maintaining his innocence after he was accused of sexual assault by multiple women.
According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, Carter filed a motion for summary judgment on Tuesday, May 7, against Shannon Ruth, who previously filed a lawsuit against the singer claiming he raped her when she was 17 years old. In the filing, Carter’s legal team claimed that Ruth was “desperate for her two minutes of fame.”
“Ruth’s goal was simple — gain as much attention as possible in hopes that Carter would be canceled. For a brief moment it worked,” the filing read. “ABC canceled the Backstreet Boys’ Christmas special, A Very Backstreet Holiday, and Carter was left fighting for his innocence and his family. Now, over a year later, Carter has obtained all of the evidence necessary to prove that he has been telling the truth all along — he did not rape Ruth or anyone else for that matter.”
Carter’s lawyers alleged that Ruth, along with other women accusing him of sexual assault including Melissa Schuman and plaintiff identified as A.R. have “orchestrated” the allegations as part of a “plan to garner fame and extort Carter out of money.” Carter and his team also accused Ruth of fabricating her testimony, claiming it was a “factual impossibility.”
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Us has reached out to Ruth, Schuman and A.R. for comment.
In December 2022, Ruth sued Carter for sexual battery and accused him of assaulting her following a 2001 Backstreet Boys concert. Ruth claimed the musician invited her to join him on his tour bus while she was waiting in line for an autograph after the show, per docs obtained by Us. She alleged that Carter exposed himself to her and had her perform oral sex on him “under duress.”
Carter vehemently denied the allegations. “This claim about an incident that supposedly took place more than 20 years ago is not only legally meritless but also entirely untrue,” the musician’s rep told Us in a statement in December 2022. “Unfortunately, for several years now, Ms. Ruth has been manipulated into making false allegations about Nick – and those allegations have changed repeatedly and materially over time. No one should be fooled by a press stunt orchestrated by an opportunistic lawyer – there is nothing to this claim whatsoever, which we have no doubt the courts will quickly realize.”
At a hearing in Las Vegas in March 2023, a judge ruled that Carter could file a counterclaim against Ruth after he alleged that she falsely accused him in an extortion attempt.
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Ruth is not the only person to accuse Carter of sexual assault. Last year, Schuman, who was a singer for the girl group Dream, also sued Carter for sexual assault and battery. In the lawsuit, Melissa claimed that Carter allegedly performed oral sex on her and made her do the same to him despite her protests before he raped her.
While Melissa filed the lawsuit in 2023, she first made the allegations in a 2017 blog post and filed a police report the following year. Carter’s lawyer, Liane K. Wakayama, denied Schuman’s accusations in a statement to Us.
“Melissa Schuman has been peddling this tale for many years, but her allegation was false when she first made it back in 2017 — and it still is,” the April 2023 statement read. “A judge in Nevada recently ruled, after reviewing the extensive evidence we laid out, that there are strong grounds for Nick Carter to proceed with his lawsuit against Ms. Schuman for plotting to damage, defame and extort Nick, his associates, his friends and his family.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
