MANHATTAN, N.Y. – A lawsuit filed Friday accused legendary musician and Nobel laureate Bob Dylan of sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl in 1965.
Court documents, obtained by The Guardian, identify the victim only as “JC” and allege that “The Times They Are A-Changin’” singer “befriended and established an emotional connection with the plaintiff,” grooming her over the course of six weeks spannig April and May 1965.
A spokesperson for Dylan told USA Today in a statement issued Monday that “the 56-year-old claim is untrue and will be vigorously defended.”
According to court documents, some of the alleged incidents occurred in Dylan’s New York apartment, the news outlet reported.
Eighty-year-old Dylan, whose real name is Robert Zimmerman, is also accused of exploiting “his status as a musician” to ply the underage girl with drugs and alcohol in order to gain her trust and to obtain control over her as part of his plan to sexually molest and abuse” the child, The Guardian reported.
JC has only been identified to date as a 68-year-old woman living in Greenwich, Connecticut, the news outlet reported.
Meanwhile, JC’s lawsuit was filed one day before the New York Child Victims Act, passed in 2019, expired, closing a “look-back” window that temporarily allowed people who claimed they were sexually abused as children to sue their alleged abusers, regardless of any statute of limitation, USA Today reported.
JC is seeking unspecified damages and a jury trial for allegations of assault, battery, false imprisonment and infliction of emotional distress, The Guardian reported.
