Ashley Morgan Smithline, who beforehand sued Marilyn Manson for sexual assault, recanted her earlier allegations and now claims that actress Evan Rachel Wooden and others “manipulated” her into talking out in opposition to the singer. The about-face is available in a declaration submitted by Manson’s lawyer, Howard King, in a swimsuit the musician, whose actual identify is Brian Warner, filed in opposition to Wooden and Wooden’s buddy, Illma Gore. “I succumbed to stress from Evan Rachel Wooden and her associates to make accusations of rape and assault in opposition to Mr. Warner that weren’t true,” Smithline now claims.
Smithline sued Warner in 2021, alleging sexual assault, sexual battery, intentional infliction of emotional misery, human trafficking, and illegal imprisonment, amongst different allegations. She claimed Warner enticed her to maneuver from Bangkok to Los Angeles to behave and that they began a relationship, which turned darkish. She alleged that she wakened someday, sure, and realized Warner was penetrating her. Amongst different allegations, she claimed he choked her, ignored her pleas of “no,” and carved his initials into her pores and skin with a knife. “On yet one more event, Mr. Warner threw a Nazi knife at Ms. Smithline, solely barely lacking her face,” the lawsuit alleged. Warner denied the accusations; the swimsuit was dismissed final month.
Within the new declaration she supplied on behalf of Warner’s lawsuit, Smithline now claims that in 2020 she was contacted by both Warner’s former assistant, Ashley Walters (who additionally filed a lawsuit, since dismissed, in opposition to Warner) or Gore. A kind of folks, she claims, invited her to talk with different girls who’d had “relationships or experiences” with Warner. She spoke on a bunch name and took half in an in-person assembly, which was filmed for the documentary Phoenix Rising about Wooden’s allegations of sexual abuse in opposition to Warner.
“I bear in mind [Wood] requested me whether or not I had been, amongst different issues, whipped, chained, tied up, branded/reduce, assaulted whereas sleeping, crushed, or raped,” Smithline claims. “She mentioned all of this stuff occurred to Ms. Wooden and others, and that when Ms. Wooden was with Mr. Warner each second was a second of survival. Once I mentioned, ‘No, this didn’t occur to me and this was not my expertise,’ I recall being advised by Ms. Wooden that simply because I couldn’t bear in mind didn’t essentially imply that it didn’t occur.”
Smithline now claims that as she considered Wooden’s allegations, she started to marvel herself if she’d skilled any such abuse. Wooden and different girls, she says, questioned whether or not she had been repressing reminiscences to get by way of the day. “Ultimately, I began to consider that what I used to be repeatedly advised occurred to Ms. Wooden and Ms. [Esme] Bianco [who also sued Warner] additionally occurred to me,” she wrote. (Bianco and Warner reached a settlement final month, ending her lawsuit in opposition to him. By way of her lawyer, Jay Ellwanger, Bianco declined to remark.)
She alleges that in anticipation of the day that Wooden named Warner as her alleged abuser, Gore inspired her to submit one thing comparable. “Ms. Gore drafted the assertion, and I gave her my password to submit it,” she writes. “The narrative finally posted to my account on or round February 1, 2021 contained unfaithful statements about Mr. Warner, together with that there was violence and non-consensual sexual exercise in our temporary relationship, and that I had repressed reminiscences of the identical.” She additionally claims now that Warner didn’t carve “MM” into her pores and skin, although she beforehand posed for a photograph in Folks exhibiting off what she mentioned on the time had been scars from the alleged incident. (A rep for Gore didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.)
A spokesperson for Wooden vehemently denies Smithline’s claims to Rolling Stone. “Evan by no means pressured or manipulated Ashley,” the rep says. “It was Ashley who first contacted Evan concerning the abuse she had suffered. It’s unlucky that the harassment and threats Ashley acquired after submitting her federal lawsuit seem to have pressured her to alter her testimony.”
In her assertion, Smithline additional claimed that Ellwanger, who represented her in her swimsuit in opposition to Warner, didn’t permit her to assessment the submitting earlier than he submitted it. “The grievance contained unfaithful statements about Mr. Warner, together with that there was violence and non-consensual sexual exercise in our temporary relationship, and that I had repressed reminiscences of the identical till assembly with Ms. Wooden, Ms. Gore, and others in 2020,” she now says. “Main as much as the submitting of the grievance, I felt pressured by Mr. Ellwanger to go on a press tour, which included an interview on The View and an interview and photoshoot with Folks journal.”
“My response is constrained by moral obligations concerning consumer confidentiality, even to a former consumer,” Ellwanger tells Rolling Stone in response to Smithline’s accusations in opposition to him. “However what I can say is that the particular allegations concerning my illustration of Ms. Smithline are categorically and verifiably false.”
Smithline says she won’t be refiling a civil case in opposition to Warner, nor will she pursue felony costs. “Wanting again, I really feel I used to be manipulated by Ms. Wooden, Ms. Gore, Ms. Bianco, and Mr. Ellwanger to unfold publicly false accusations of abuse in opposition to Mr. Warner,” she says. In line with the New York Put up, Warner’s lawyer, Howard King, claims that she has not been “compensated for talking in favor of his consumer and in opposition to Wooden.”
“As we now have at all times mentioned, the coordinated marketing campaign of #MeToo lies in opposition to Brian Warner goes to go down as one of many best hoaxes of all time,” King mentioned in a press release. “Susceptible girls had been manipulated by unscrupulous people searching for to construct their very own manufacturers and pursue their very own vendettas. This sworn testimony proves it.”
Warner filed a lawsuit in opposition to Wooden and Gore final yr for defamation, emotional misery, and “impersonation over the web,” amongst different costs in March 2022. The submitting alleged the 2 girls led “a conspiracy” in opposition to him, impersonating FBI brokers to persuade girls that authorities had been investigating Warner, so that they’d really feel snug coming ahead with their very own allegations. The submitting claimed that Gore “swatted” Warner by convincing police to go to Warner’s house underneath false pretense.
Wooden responded to the lawsuit in an look on The View whereas selling Phoenix Rising. “I’m very assured that I’ve the reality on my facet and that the reality will come out,” she mentioned. “That is clearly timed earlier than the documentary. … I’ve to let the authorized course of run its course, and I’m regular as a rock.”
Warner nonetheless faces lawsuits from two girls, who’ve each filed anonymously as Jane Doe. The primary Jane Doe alleges that Warner raped her in his house in 2011; the lawsuit was dismissed over the statute of limitations however she refiled in 2021. In a lawsuit filed earlier this month, the second Jane Doe claims Warner abused her when she was underage and continued to “groom, harass, and sexually abuse” her as an grownup. By way of his lawyer, Warner denied the allegations in each fits.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division carried out an investigation into felony costs in opposition to Warner and have turned its findings over to the L.A. district lawyer. The D.A. has but to announce whether or not or not it’s going to press costs in opposition to Warner.
In 2021, Smithline spoke with Rolling Stone as a part of an investigation into her and the opposite accusers’ claims in opposition to Warner. She accused Warner of “Brainwashing 101” and mentioned Warner took benefit of her vulnerability, locking her in a confined area he known as the “dangerous ladies’ room” as punishment. “I began to [feel] smaller and smaller and quieter and quieter,” Smithline mentioned. “Once you’re silenced or locked in a field the place nobody can hear you, you actually begin to consider how small and unimportant you’re. I simply didn’t wish to communicate anymore.”