Four women have accused Smokey Robinson of sexually harassing and repeatedly raping them while they worked as housekeepers for the Motown icon and his wife at various times going back to 2007.
In a new lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles, the women allege the soul singer and producer would find ways to isolate them at his homes in the San Fernando Valley and Las Vegas and force them into sexual contact despite their protests. The lawsuit includes claims for sexual assault, sexual battery, false imprisonment, and gender violence against Robinson. It also names Robinson’s wife as a co-defendant under claims of promoting a hostile work environment, negligence, and intentional and negligent emotional distress. (A rep for Robinson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff identified as Jane Doe 1 alleges Robinson sexually battered her at least seven times between January 2023 and February 2024. She alleges Robinson would take his wife to her weekend nail salon appointments, rush home, and lure her into his “blue bedroom,” where he would lock the door and place a white towel on his bed so he wouldn’t “soil the bed lines.” The woman alleges Robinson ignored her resistance and would “roughly penetrate” her without using a condom.
Jane Doe 2 alleges she worked for Robinson and his wife between May 2014 and February 2020. She claims Robinson forced her into unwanted sexual acts on at least 23 different occasions. She says Robinson forced her to perform oral sex on him before he forcibly penetrated her without using a condom. She claims he “enjoyed ejaculating all over [her] face, much to his satisfaction and her abject humiliation.”
Jane Doe 3 alleges Robinson “repeatedly sexually harassed, sexually assaulted and raped [her] during most of her entire employment” between February 2012 and April 2024. She claims Robinson followed a “ritual” in which he would shower, place a towel on his bed and then disrobe her before allegedly forcing her to lie face down so he could penetrate her vagina from behind. She alleges Robinson did this at least 20 times, and that on one occasion, when she resisted his advances, he offered her $500 to allow him to orally copulate her. She refused the proposition, the lawsuit filed by lawyers John W. Harris and Herbert Hayden on behalf of the four women reads.
Jane Doe 4 says she started working for Robinson and his wife in 2006 and was forced to resign in April 2024 due to alleged abuse. She claims Robinson first sexually assaulted her in 2007 when she accompanied him to his Las Vegas home. She claims he forced her into his bedroom and raped her. She says Robinson assaulted her again multiple times starting in 2019. She alleges he would trap her in a bedroom and rape her on a towel placed on a bed.
“He would pull [Jane Doe 4’s] clothes off, and against her protestations, push her down on the bed and proceed to rape her,” the 27-page lawsuit obtained by Rolling Stone states. “Defendant Smokey Robinson never used a condom during the sexual assaults, ejaculating into [her] vagina or withdrawing and ejaculating all over her body, much to his satisfaction and her abject humiliation.”
Three of the Jane Does say they were unwilling to report the alleged abuse because they were afraid of losing their jobs and possible “adverse” outcomes related to their immigration status. They were “intimidated” by Robinson’s “well-recognized celebrity status and his influential friends and associates,” the lawsuit states.
According to the complaint, Robinson’s wife, Frances, “failed to take the appropriate corrective action to prevent defendant Smokey Robinson’s deviant misconduct,” despite allegedly “having full knowledge of his prior acts of sexual misconduct, having settled cases with other women that suffered and experienced similar sexual assaults perpetuated by him.”
This is a developing story
