Garth Brooks claims rape allegations are part of an extortion attempt

Less than a week after Garth Brooks was accused of rape in California, the country singer was back in federal court in Mississippi today to slam his own attempts to keep real names out of the matter.

After a “Jane Roe” was revealed in the highly graphic lawsuit in LA Superior Court on October 3, Brooks released the identity of the former makeup artist and stylist to himself and his wife and Country in an amended lawsuit on Tuesday -Icon Trisha Yearwood.

While he spoke of his “stellar public image and selfless philanthropic work” being at risk, Brooks described today that he was “the victim of blackmail” and “blackmail” by the said Jane Roe to get him to “Millions of dollars” to pay her.

Brooks denies everything, as he did last week, and blames the “malicious plan” on Roe’s anger that “her application for employment and medical care” was rejected. Brooks is now calling for his own request to be rejected and also said Tuesday that his mid-September request for “pseudonymous treatment for both parties” had become a dead letter thanks to Jane Roe’s own lawyer.

“Rather than allowing this court to consider and rule on plaintiff’s motion, Roe has taken the decision away from the court,” Brooks and his legal team said today in their seven-page response to the defendant’s response. “While Plaintiff’s motion to proceed under a pseudonym was pending and before he was fully informed, Roe’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, revealed to CNN that Plaintiff was world-renowned musician and humanitarian Garth Brooks,” the response reads of West Coast allegations of “painful and traumatic” rape, assault and other assaults in 2019. “CNN published an article about the dispute even before Roe’s lawsuit in California was on the record and publicly available. The CNN publication also quoted Roe’s attorney making derisive comments about the lawsuit.”

The SAC filed today is nearly identical to Brooks’ first federal filing about a month ago, differing from the previous one only in the two mentions of Jane Roe’s real name and the singer himself, who previously performed under “John Doe.”

In the Oct. 8 Mississippi jury trial, as in the Sept. 13 case, Brooks, a Tennessee resident, is seeking a “declaratory judgment that the defendant’s allegations of sexual misconduct against him are untrue” and a range of unspecified damages Amount of more than $75,000 Jane Roe is seeking six damages claims from LASC on the West Coast and is also seeking a number of unspecified damages.

Deadline will not release the real name of Brooks’ rape accuser at this time.

However, after Brooks revealed Jane Roe’s real name, her lawyers may now, at least indirectly, demand more from the Southern courts.

“Garth Brooks has just revealed his true self,” Doug Wigdor, Jeanne M. Christensen and Hayley Baker said in a statement to Deadline this evening. “Out of spite and as punishment, he publicly named him a rape victim. Without legal justification, Brooks outed her because he believes the laws don’t apply to him. On behalf of our client, we will immediately request maximum sentences against him.”

Read immediately as October 9th, a well-placed source tells me.

In a nod to the new, more public strategy Brooks is now pursuing, the singer added Daniel Petrocelli, one of Hollywood’s most popular corporate lawyers, to his team on October 4. Joined by Megan Smith and Eric Amdursky of O’Melveny & Myers’ California offices, Petrocelli and his firm colleagues will now work alongside Brooks R. David Kaufman-led initial legal team from Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes, PLLC of Jackson, Mississippi.

On October 7, Brooks briefly addressed “the elephant in the room” in his post. In Studio G on Facebook Live. “This thing is going on, it’s going to happen,” the singer said of the allegations and court battle. “People tell me it could take up to two years,” Brooks added. “So my suggestion is that we all take a deep breath, just get comfortable and hold hands and go on a journey together, because we can’t talk about that. That’s all we can say about it.”