In 2022, a woman named Julia Misley (formerly Julia Holcomb) sued Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler, accusing him of sexually assaulting her in the '70s, when she was a minor. Misley filed her lawsuit in the final days of the Child Victims Act, a 2019 law that temporarily voided the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse. She met Tyler when she was 16 and he was 25, and he became her legal guardian during their three-year relationship, which Tyler wrote about in his own 2011 memoir. The trial was set to start later this month, but now two different judges have recused themselves from the case.
Rolling Stone reports that Los Angeles County judge Patricia A. Young recused herself from Misley's lawsuit on Tuesday, saying that she disclosed a potential conflict of interest to both sides on the previous day. Misley's lawyer says that the two sides couldn't agree to waive that potential conflict, so Young had to recuse herself. According to Rolling Stone, Young had been consulting with another judge about the case but then learned that the other judge had "previously been removed from the case for undisclosed reasons." The trial, previously set to begin Sep. 28, has been removed from the calendar for now.
Tyler previously denied Misley's claims and asked the court to dismiss the case, on the grounds that Misley lived with him in Massachusetts, where the legal age of consent was 16. His lawyers claimed that Massachusetts law governed their relationship even when Misley traveled with him to other states. Tyler succeeded in getting many of Misley's claims dismissed, but Misley's lawyers successfully argued that local laws still applied in California, where the lawsuit was filed.
In 2023, the former teen model Jeanne Bellino also sued Steven Tyler for sexual assault in the '70s, when she was underage. In 2024, People reported that a judge dismissed Bellino's lawsuit after ruling that she waited too long to file the lawsuit.
If you or someone you know is undergoing sexual abuse, please visit rainn.org or contact the National Sexual Assault Helpline at 1-800-656-4673.
