Shock rocker Marilyn Manson (aka Brian Warner) has filed suit against his ex-fiancée Evan Rachel Wood. Last February saw Wood publicly accuse Manson of abusing her—claims which opened the floodgates of similar tales of abuse coming forward from over a dozen women.
Several of those women have since went on to file sexual assault-related lawsuits against Manson, including actress Esmé Bianco, his former personal assistant Ashley Walters and his former girlfriend Ashley Morgan Smithline. An unidentified woman has also filed suit against him as well.
Manson publicly denied the initial allegations made against him, and has continued to defend himself against the allegations in court. Now comes word that Manson filed suit against Wood and her friend Illma Gore today March 02nd, claiming defamation, emotional distress, computer fraud and ‘impersonation over the internet’ and more.
A report filed by Rolling Stone outlined the claims as such:
‘Warner‘s lawsuit claims Wood and Gore impersonated an FBI agent to give the appearance that a federal investigation into Warner‘s alleged crimes was ongoing. They allegedly sent letters from this agent to women who would later make public allegations against Warner to suggest that they were in danger.
Warner also claims that Wood and Gore “provided checklists and scripts to prospective accusers, listing the specific alleged acts of abuse that they should claim against Warner” and that they made false statements to these women “including the defamatory claim that Warner filmed the sexual assault of a minor.”‘
Manson‘s defamation suit arrives ahead of the upcoming March 15th premiere of the HBO documentary ‘Phoenix Rising‘ (see the trailer below), which focuses on the alleged abuse Wood and a number of the women who accused Manson claim to have suffered at his hands.
Manson‘s claims in this new defamation suit echo previous claims made by his legal team this past July. In a motion filed around that time, Manson‘s camp alleged that several of the women who had come forward against him were “co-conspirators” who were “desperately trying to conflate the imagery and artistry of [Brian] Warner’s ‘shock rock’ stage persona, ‘Marilyn Manson,’ with fabricated accounts of abuse.”
That motion also claimed that several of the women who accused him had “spent months plotting, workshopping, and fine-tuning” their claims into “twisted tales that bear no resemblance to reality.”
Manson‘s lawyer Howard King issued the following statement to Consequence over this new lawsuit:
“This detailed complaint has been filed to stop a campaign of malicious and unjustified attacks on Brian Warner. Years after the end of Evan Rachel Wood’s long-term relationship with Warner, she and her girlfriend Illma Gore recruited numerous women and convinced them to make false allegations against him – claims that Wood and Gore scripted for them.
As part of their plot, Wood and Gore illegally forged a letter impersonating an actual FBI agent and falsely claiming that she was conducting a criminal investigation of Warner. Wood and Gore used that fabricated FBI letter not only to convince others to join their crusade but also to dupe HBO into distributing a one-sided ‘documentary’ premised on the existence of an entirely fictitious federal investigation.
Even though HBO and the producers have been made aware of these serious acts of misconduct, they have thus far chosen to proceed without regard for the facts. But the evidence of wrongdoing by Wood and Gore is irrefutable – and this legal action will hold them to account.”
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