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Kesha’s appeal dismissed: ‘Every rape is not a gender-motivated hate crime’

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Back in February, Kesha’s lawsuit/injunction against Dr. Luke was thrown out. The lawsuit was about Kesha’s right to break her contract with her alleged abuser, and how she wanted to record music away from Dr. Luke entirely. The judge threw out the case because the judge believed in upholding the contract, for whatever reason. It seemed like the judge was so Pollyanna to believe that everything operates in the music industry with perfect, profit-driven capitalism and no one ever has a personal or non-financial motive for any of their actions, but it may have been a legal judgment. Kesha and her lawyers filed an immediate appeal and her lawyers seemed to overreach a bit by comparing Kesha’s situation to “slavery.” Well, the same judge has just thrown out Kesha’s appeal, meaning Kesha is still contractually tied to Dr. Luke. Kesha was delivered a huge blow Wednesday by a New York judge who dismissed nearly all of the singer’s counterclaims in her ongoing lawsuit against Dr. Luke. The star previously accused the producer of drugging, raping and abusing her during her career. The hitmaker, in turn, has vehemently denied the allegations and countersued for breach of contract and defamation. The singer has been adamant about being released from her contracts with Luke because, she wrote in February, “This is about being free from my abuser.” On Wednesday, New York Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich cited lack of jurisdiction and failure to procure facts proving the allegations when tossing out the majority of Kesha’s counter claims. The pop star’s claims invoking human rights laws were dismissed – alleging the plaintiffs “discriminated against [her] based on her gender” – were dismissed because “Kesha failed to plead that any of the alleged discrimination occurred in New York State or City … the court has no jurisdiction over” the claims, the judge wrote. As for the civil rights, or “hate crime,” laws, the singer had to prove Dr. Luke “harbored animus towards women or was motivated by gender animus when he allegedly behaved violently toward Kesha,” the judge stated in court documents obtained by PEOPLE. “Every rape is not a gender-motivated hate crime.” According to Justice Kornreich, the only allegations Kesha made that meets the elements of “physical violence or property damage” were claims that Luke assaulted her on an airplane and raped her in his hotel room. But “the claim is time-barred,” writes Kornreich. The singer’s claim of “intentional infliction of emotional distress” was also dismissed because the judge believes her allegations “do not meet the strict pleading standard. Her claims of insults about her value as an artist, her looks, and her weight are insufficient to constitute extreme, outrageous conduct intolerable in civilized society,” Kornreich wrote, adding the instances that would constitute as intentional were “time-barred.” Aside from throwing out her claims, the judge also denied Kesha’s request to make amendments. “Kesha’s request for leave to amend the CCs is denied because there is nothing in the record from which the court can determine whether the amendment would be meritorious,” state the papers. [From People] Ever since I read about this ruling last night, I’ve been thinking about the judge’s words: “Every rape is not a gender-motivated hate crime.” True or false? Is every rapist a misogynist? Is every rape a hate crime? It’s not just a linguistic argument, it’s a legal argument and one that I would like to see more of. I have long believed that we should consider mass shooters to be “terrorists” regardless of race. Can we not say serial abusers of women are hate-crime assailants or misogynistic terrorists too? Anyway, Kesha’s still got legal options. The part of her case about her recording contract is still going forward, and Kesha is putting together a larger legal team to pursue more actions in California. Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

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Kesha loses injunction to break her contract with her alleged abuser Dr. Luke

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In 2014, Kesha went into a facility to get help for a bad personal situation. She was drinking too much and abusing drugs, plus she had mental health issues, an eating disorder and she was dealing with some intense issues from her relationship with producer Dr. Luke. Later that same year, Kesha filed a civil lawsuit against Dr. Luke claiming that he mentally and physically abused her, drugged her and sexually assaulted her. She wanted to be let out of her recording contract. Dr. Luke countersued and claimed Kesha had made the whole thing up and that he would not be letting her out of her contract. Well, Kesha went to New York Supreme Court on Friday to find out that the judge had thrown out Kesha’s injunction. Basically, Dr. Luke won because this judge, Justice Shirley Kornreich, has a totally Pollyanna idea of how the music industry really works. Here’s part of People Magazine’s report: Kesha’s lawyers fought for a preliminary injunction that would allow her to record and release music without Dr. Luke, 42, whom she is also suing for allegedly drugging and raping her. The singer also alleges he has abused her verbally and emotionally for a decade. (Luke has vehemently denied the allegations through his lawyer, Christine Lepera, who has told PEOPLE: “Kesha and her mother are engaged in a campaign of publishing outrageous and untrue statements about Dr. Luke to third parties, including scurrilous and false statements of purported physical and mental abuse of Kesha.”) However, Justice Shirley Kornreich recounted that both Sony and Luke provided affidavits that they would allow Kesha to record without the producer. “Your major issue is your client is saying she cannot with Mr. Gottwald. Reading these papers, I notice that Sony and [Dr. Luke’s record label] Kemosabe Records say they don’t care if Gottwald has anything to do with anything with the recording,” the judge said to Kesha’s attorney, Mark Geragos. “They are willing to allow her to record without any involvement of Mr. Gottwald … and there are papers from Mr. Gottwald that say he will agree to allow her to record without his involvement … She doesn’t have to work with him.” But, Geragos responded, arguing that it was an “illusory promise…If he’s the one in charge of the company that does all the things to produce it … she can record right now, but no one is going to hear it,” he said, reiterating his assertion that Kesha’s future in music is in jeopardy because the typical lifespan of a pop artist’s career is short and that he believes her album won’t be promoted in an attempt to sabotage her career. Geragos added: “She has a window in which she can produce music, that it can get out there, that it can get promoted … His end game here is to destroy her… She is set up to fail.” The judge disagreed, citing the companies’ competitive objective to make money and the clear terms of the contract, which require Kesha to record six more albums. “You’re asking the court … to decimate a contract which was heavily negotiated and signed by two parties in an industry where these kinds of contacts are typical; you’re asking me to decimate all that law,” said the judge. “Now the other side has come forward to say, ‘We will let her record without Dr. Luke.’ I don’t understand your problem … It’s not in [the company’s] best interest to not make money and not promote a recording artist.” Upon the judge’s dismissal of the request for the injunction, Kesha broke down in tears, holding her face in her hands while mom Pebe and boyfriend Brad Ashenfelter did their best to console her the bereaved pop star excused herself from the room for a spell with a bodyguard. Lawyers also argued over dueling counterclaims, but the judge has yet to make a ruling, reserving to decide on the matters at a later time, perhaps when more evidence has been presented. [From People] “It’s not in [the company’s] best interest to not make money and not promote a recording artist.” How naive. The judge assumes that every person in the music industry has simple, straight-forward capitalist motives and that there’s not a history of music producers and labels actively thwarting a singer or songwriter’s career over personal or professional drama, regardless if those un-capitalist motives end up losing money. Even if you’re not familiar with the music industry in general, watch 20 Feet From Stardom and listen to Darlene Love’s story about how her early career was ruined because of a sh-tty contract and a producer who was a petulant sadist. That sh-t STILL HAPPENS. For a while on Friday, #FreeKesha was trending on Twitter, and many women in the music industry tweeted their support for Kesha – go here to see. Kelly Clarkson sounds like she has some stories about Dr. Luke that I would be interested in hearing. This feels like… the beginning of something. Like, Dr. Luke might be Cosby’d in public. Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

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Charlie Sheen’s kids ‘don’t want to be alone with him,’ Denise protects them

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Embed from Getty Images Yesterday we reported on some disturbing details in Denise Richards’s lawsuit against Charlie Sheen. Denise is seeking that Charlie either return the $7 million into a trust he raided for his daughters or give her $1.2 million to put down on a house. Charlie made that $7 million by evicting Denise from a mansion he purchased for her down the street from his house. He convinced her to move in with a sob story about rebuilding a relationship with his daughters after he learned he had HIV, only to harass and emotionally abuse her and the girls. The lawsuit described troubling incidents in which Charlie called his youngest daughter, Lola, then nine, awful names, and threatened to kill her and Denise. Denise hired private security for protection following Charlie’s threats. Page Six has some insider quotes from Denise and Charlie’s side, and Denise’s sounds sane and concerned for her girls, of course, while Charlie’s people are defensive and question Denise’s motives. This is their only move, and given how stoic Denise has been for years it’s a lousy one. “It’s volatile,” said a source, adding of Sheen and Richards’ children, “They’re afraid. They obviously love their dad, but they don’t feel comfortable. Stuff like that doesn’t go away overnight. They don’t want to be alone with him.” But a pal of Sheen’s told us: “It becomes difficult because the kids want to see their dad. He wants to see them, but she doesn’t allow it unless she’s present.” The source added that Sheen was texting Richards when he sent his daughter the profane note. “[Denise] was using the kid’s phone texting Charlie and they got into a disagreement. He talks and texts with them every day.” A Richards source countered, “Anyone with half a brain knows he’s texting his daughters,” and said Richards has “screenshots.” As far as her keeping him from the kids, “If that was the case, why would she move down the street from him? His priority was smoking crack and hookers. When you’re in that state, your kids are the furthest thing from your mind,” the friend of Richards said. Richards’ suit isn’t helping the relationship. “The guy has written checks. It’s not like he’s working now,” a Sheen source said. “Now would be the time to say, ‘What can I do to help you? I know times are tough.’ When he’s working, he’s the most generous person in the world.” But a different source said of the situation: “She’s never extorted him and always forgives him. He lashes out because he can do that to her. There are very few people in his life who won’t extort him and he holds that over her head.” [From Page Six] The Sheen source is telling Denise to ask “how can I help you?” and complaining about Denise, when she’s still letting him text the girls and see them as long as she’s there. That’s WAY more generous than Charlie deserves. He threatened to kill them! He should have court supervised visitation at the very least, but Denise has worked with him for years and it’s only harmed her and her daughters. I’m in no way criticizing her, she tried her best to give Charlie a relationship with his girls, was pushed into a corner and is now doing what she has to do. Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images

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YouTuber Matthew Santoro claims abuse by Nicole Arbour: ‘men get hit too’

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I know popular YouTuber Matthew Santoro because my son watches his educational videos and often quotes facts from them. Santoro’s videos are similar to John Green’s channel MentalFloss in that he gives fast-paced and interesting facts. I know YouTuber Nicole Arbour because she’s somewhat of a professional troll. Her obnoxious video, Dear Fat People, earned her headlines around the world and a spot on The View, when she stirred up sh*t when The View ladies arguably disparaged nursing as a profession. (Here’s the background on that controversy.) One of Arbour’s latest videos, Dear Feminists (NSFW language), characterizes feminists as women who hate men and don’t shave their legs. I wish I was making that up. In December, Santoro recorded an emotional and revealing video about the abuse he suffered in a previous relationship. He made the video private at first but accidentally set it to public recently. The response was positive and so he decided to leave it up. In the video (above), Santoro cried as he revealed how a former partner controlled him, cut him off from friends and family and once hit him in the face, which he described as more devastating emotionally than physically. He emphasized that abuse knows no gender and encouraged victims to come forward. While he never named the person whom he claimed abused him, Santoro’s former partner, Nicole Arbour, responded by posting a comment on one of her recent videos, writing “Heard the little bitch I dumped months ago is still trying to use me to get attention on his vlog channel. Ew.” [via Raw Story] Here’s some of what Santoro said in the video, which was heartfelt and powerful and really moved me. On being isolated from friends and family I pushed my family away, I pushed my closet friends away. It wasn’t always explicit… this individual I was with was extremely jealous… I had to cut every female out of my life and it was because everything was made to be about her. I lost my closest friends because I was made to believe everybody else was a loser. Claims she hit him on the face Early in the relationship I had a verbal altercation [after] I had a panic attack… and I broke it off with this individual. This person prevented me from leaving their home and said “you’re not going anywhere” at which point I was hit in the face for the first time in my life. When someone you care about strikes you there are so many emotions… you feel sadness… shame… embarrassment. You think ‘was it my fault?’… luckily I was able to leave that night. He broke it off but took her back Through manipulation… about a month down the road [she] contacted me and told me that [she’d] changed… and I took her back. That is incredibly embarrassing to say. What people don’t realize is, when I took her back the real damage was psychological… I cut everyone out of my life and my business suffered… everything became about her. He was manipulated and controlled I allowed myself to be in a relationship where I was controlled, where I was manipulated, where I was made to do things and act in a way that I never would on my own. It wasn’t until just a few weeks ago that I decided to break it off from her… I wanted my life back. I allowed somebody to emotionally and physically abuse me for almost a year of my life. It’s really embarrassing to say that, but it’s the truth. On why he made the video The reason I’m making this video is not to disparage anyone… it’s to tell you that domestic violence knows no gender [cries]. It happens to men and women. It’s something that men never talk about because we’re made to believe that we’re supposed to be strong. Men get hit too. Tell someone Men get hit too. Abuse knows no gender, it’s something that people don’t talk about… Whether you’re a man or a female, if somebody hits you, tell somebody. Tell a family member, tell a friend. Don’t bottle it up, because it will do damage to you that lasts for years. [From My Abuse Story video, by Matthew Santoro] Holy crap. I truly believe that this guy just helped SO MANY people by sharing his story so honestly. That must have been incredibly hard. After posting that really telling comment, Arbour recorded two videos in response to Santoro’s video. Arbour claims that she broke up with Santoro, not the other way around, and posted a brief video of the two of them together in which they’re goofing around and he play hits her, bites her shoulder and sort-of asks her to marry him. Here’s some of what she said: Claims it’s not true That [playful video with Santoro] was one week before I broke up with my ex boyfriend, who has recently put out a video, not saying my name but… insinuating that we were in a domestic abusive relationship, which was not true. It’s just not true. This sucks, because whether you like what I do or not as a performer… I’m a comedian… whether you like my act or my rants or not, I don’t care… but I had asked repeatedly while dating him that my private life not be put on the Internet and he repeatedly overstepped that boundary over and over. Claims he moved down the street from her after their first breakup We broke up briefly and he moved down the street from me after we broke up… in hopes that we would get back together and we did. We dated for a bunch of months after that and it was fine… Claims she broke up with him, he violated her privacy Something in my heart just didn’t feel it anymore… his lifestyle and the way that he wanted to be a youtuber and have everything public all the time wasn’t for me and I broke up with him and it was as amicable as it could possibly be at the time until his hurt over the breakup turned to anger turned to a whole bunch of lies… as my videos were doing well he suddenly [did] interviews about me and our personal life… I don’t want my real private life out there… Claims he’s just trying to damage her career His video that he put out is just another way to hurt me and my career that’s growing quickly. It is abuse… of his platform, it’s abuse to all the people who suffer from something. He didn’t suffer from domestic abuse. It didn’t happen. Don’t use kids to be a hate army. I think that’s what’s wrong with YouTube… the obsession with manufactured drama. He’s “taking a tiny little thing and spinning it” Crying wolf on a serious subject… and trying to fabricate a very large story and taking a tiny little thing and spinning it into something that just didn’t happen is sick. [From Abuse Story – My Side of Things by Nicole Arbour] Read those last lines “taking a tiny little thing and spinning it.” She never specifically denied hitting him. She did say that “it did not happen… there was no domestic abuse.” However not once did she say “I did not hit him.” After Arbour recorded that first video refuting Santoro, she recorded another video, claiming that “people are equating subscribers with truth” and saying that the court of opinion is on Santoro’s side because he has more followers on YouTube than she does. She then challenged Santoro to come on her channel and do a live stream polygraph test with the two of them. Again, I would have liked to hear her say “I never hit him.” I’m sure there’s more to the story than he’s claiming, there are always two sides to a story, but if she did hit him that’s pretty damning. Plus if he’s not telling the truth he’s an incredible actor.

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Making A Murder filmmakers: ‘the [national] media are demonizing this man’

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Embed from Getty Images Netflix’s controversial documentary series Making A Murderer continues to generate headlines and think pieces, most notably this excellent one from New Yorker magazine. At a panel discussing the series at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour on Sunday, film creators Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos addressed criticism that they painted a picture of Steven Avery that avoided mention of his violent past, including recently reported incidents of abuse against his ex-wife and ex-fiancee Jodi Stachowski, who told producers of Nancy Grace’s HLN show that he was a “monster”. Ricciardi responded to the critics by saying, “I think what we’re seeing now is actually history repeating itself. It’s now on a national scale that the media are demonizing this man in order to prove his guilt. What we did was we documented the Halbach case as it was unfolding. Whatever [allegations against Avery] you’re referencing now never came into that process at all. So it wasn’t relevant to our process. We looked at the history here.” At the panel discussion, Ricciardi also revealed that Steven Avery has not yet seen the documentary, saying, “He asked the warden and his social worker whether he would be able to see it and his request was denied. When we spoke to him recently, his focus was mainly on his case.” When asked if a sequel was on the horizon, Demos said, “This story is ongoing. These cases are open. But it’s real life. You don’t know what’s going to happen. So we are ready to follow these if there are significant developments. We will be there.” In other Making A Murderer news, Dean Strang, one of Avery’s defense lawyers, admitted during an appearance on CBS This Morning this past Friday that he has some doubts about the convict’s innocence. When asked if he felt his client could possibly be guilty he responded, “Sure, absolutely.” He then added, “And if it was OK to convict people on maybes, I wouldn’t be worried about this, but it’s not.” On the flip side, Strang said he was still not convinced of Avery’s guilt, stating, “I’m not at all convinced of his guilt, never have been.” It would be interesting to see how a sequel would handle all of the recent evidence, especially the details coming in about the vial of Avery’s blood that seemed to be the defense’s “smoking gun.” Photo credit: Getty Images, Netflix