Nick Carter's lawyers dispute sexual assault allegations detailed in the new docuseries “Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter.”
In the docuseries that premiered Monday, three women — Melissa Schuman, Shannon Ruth and Ashley Repp — spoke out about their alleged assaults in the early 2000s. Each of the women sued Carter, who denied their allegations and filed collectively a countersuit against the three for defamation.
In a statement to the Times, Carter's attorneys, Liane Wakayama and Dale Hayes Jr., rejected the allegations contained in “Fallen Idols,” for which Carter reportedly refused to be interviewed.
“These are the exact same outrageous claims that led us to sue this band of conspirators,” the statement said. “Those cases are working their way through the legal system now and, based on both the initial court rulings and the overwhelming evidence, we firmly believe that we will prevail and hold them accountable for spreading these falsehoods.”
The final two of the four episodes of “Fallen Idols” will premiere Tuesday on Investigation Discovery, the network behind “Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV.”
The Investigation Discovery show also addresses the rift between brothers Nick and Aaron Carter, which was amplified after Aaron publicly supported the women who accused Nick, whose real name is Nickolas Carter, of sexual assault. The series also mentions Nick's younger brother's mental health issues before his death in November 2022 at age 34.
The fourth episode will address Ruth's claims, according to CNN. Ruth filed a civil sexual assault lawsuit against Carter in December 2022, alleging that he infected her with her HPV when she was 17 and he was 21.
Ruth said the alleged assault, which she characterized as rape, occurred in February 2001 after a Backstreet Boys concert in Tacoma, Washington. In a December 2022 statement, a lawyer for Carter called the allegations “legally baseless” and “completely false.”
In February 2023, Carter countersued Ruth, calling her an “opportunist” who allegedly conspired with Schuman to extort him. Carter also added Schuman as a defendant in his defamation countersuit.
Schuman, a former member of the 2000s girl group Dream, accused Carter of rape in 2017, although prosecutors declined to press charges because the statute of limitations had run out. She filed a lawsuit in April 2023, alleging that Carter sexually assaulted her in 2002 in Santa Monica when he was 22 and she was 18.
Repp filed her lawsuit in August 2023, alleging that Carter assaulted her three times in Florida in 2003, when she was 15 and he was 23. Repp said Carter infected her with HPV.
Repp's attorney, Margaret Mabie, who filed the lawsuit on her client's behalf, said in a statement at the time that she hoped “this lawsuit paves the way for other survivors to hold their abusers accountable.”
Carter's lawyer called Repp's accusations “ridiculous” and added her to the defamation countersuit in January 2024.
