American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe has been accused of sexual assault for the third time in less than two months.
“What should have been a quick two-minute ride ended up being a ten-to-fifteen minute sexual assault and battery in which Plaintiff was trapped in Lythgoe’s vehicle,” alleges a battery, gender violence and emotional distress complaint from a Jane Doe against the former So You Think You Can Dance judge.
“Lythgoe’s sexual assault and battery of Plaintiff left her feeling horribly violated, shocked, guilty, humiliated, and embarrassed. Such mental anguish and emotional distress were severe and lasting to this day,” the February 17 filed jury trial seeking suit adds in the barest of language.
Having started with a chance meeting in February 2016 in a Beverly Hills hotel bar with Jane Doe and her daughter and two friends, the alleged attack becomes all the viler when you add in that Lythgoe’s driver was supposedly behind the wheel the entire time taking the plaintiff and the Idol boss through the nearby hills against Jane Doe’s expressed wishes.
In her slightly redacted eight-page complaint, Jane Doe is seeking a variety of unspecified damages.
Representatives for Lythgoe did not respond to request for comment on these new claims. Lythgoe exited the latest season of SYTYCD in January as claims of sexual assault from Paula Abdul and a separate suit from a Jane Doe K.G. and a Jane Doe K.N. hit the court dockets.
While Lythgoe’s people have been silent so far, one of Jane Doe’s lawyer has not.
“It is troubling to hear of yet another alleged incident of a woman being taken advantage of and abused by a prominent public figure,” Melissa Eubanks said in a statement today. “We are proud to represent Jane Doe and humbled by her courage, and the courage of many other women, to come forward with her story in hopes of ending such egregious misconduct by persons of fame, celebrity, influence, and power,” the Johnson & Johnson attorney added.
Eubanks, as well as colleagues Neville L. Johnson and Douglas L. Johnson also represent Abdul in her December 29 filed sexual assault and battery suit against Lythgoe. In that action, the ex-Idol judge revealed the first alleged assault occurred in the show’s early years and the second one happened in 2015 in a meeting over Season 12 of SYTYCD
“For years, Abdul has remained silent about the sexual assaults and harassment she experienced on account of Lythgoe due to fear of speaking out against one of the most well-known producers of television competition shows who could easily break her career as a television personality and of being ostracized and blackballed by an industry that had a pattern of protecting powerful men and silencing survivors of sexual assault and harassment,” the Grammy winner’s complaint states.
Calling Abdul “erratic,” Lythgoe has said that her claims are “false” and “deeply offensive to me and to everything I stand for.” He has not spoken publicly on the previous Jane Does’ suit of early January.