Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler wins dismissal of sexual assault lawsuit
NEW YORK –
A federal judge in Manhattan dismissed for good a lawsuit accusing Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler of sexually assaulting a former teenage model twice in one day in the mid-1970s.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said Jeanne Bellino cannot recover damages from the 76-year-old Tyler under a 2000 New York City law protecting victims of gender-motivated violence.
He said it would be futile to file an amended complaint, and dismissed Bellino’s case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be brought again. Kaplan rejected an earlier complaint in February.
Lawyers for Bellino did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Tyler had “vehemently” denied Bellino’s allegations, which included that he assaulted her in a phone booth as others in his entourage stood by laughing, and later assaulted her in a hotel.
The alleged assaults occurred in the summer of 1975, when Bellino was 17 and Tyler was 27.
Bellino said she encountered Tyler after a friend arranged for her to meet Aerosmith following a Manhattan fashion show.
Kaplan said the city law was not retroactive, and that Bellino’s battery claim would have expired on her 19th birthday.
He also said two more recent state laws, the Adult Survivors Act and Child Victims Act, did not revive Bellino’s claim.
The judge said the first law covered only people who were at least 18 when they become victims, and the second did not cover claims filed after August 2021. Bellino sued in November 2023.
David Long-Daniels, a lawyer for Tyler, in an email said Kaplan “fastidiously applied the facts to the law. That is all we can ask from any judge. We are particularly happy for Steven and his family.”
Tyler has also defended against a lawsuit in Los Angeles, where the plaintiff Julia Misley claimed he sexually assaulted her in 1973 when she was 16 and he was 25.
Bellino’s law firm has represented Misley in that case.
Tyler’s given name is Steven Tallarico. Bellino’s case is Bellino v Tallarico, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 24-00712.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Diane Craft)
