Axl Rose Wants Sanctions Against Sexual Assault Accuser
We’ve known of this lawsuit since November ’23. Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose is now demanding sanctions against Sheila Kennedy, the former Penthouse model who accused him of sexually assaulting her during a 1989 party in a NYC hotel room.
In a February 21, ’24 filing, lawyers for Rose claimed that Kennedy is trying to “rewrite history” with her lawsuit, and denied all of her allegation. They also say that Kennedy “has herself repeatedly acknowledged” that she was “never sexually assaulted” by Rose.
Rose’s lawyer said, “In her 2016 self-authored memoir, No One’s Pet, Kennedy described the alleged incident in the Complaint as consensual sex, and specifically noted: ‘I was okay with this. I had wanted to be with him since the minute I’d first laid eyes on him, and now I was getting him.'”
“In an interview for the 2021 documentary Look Away, Kennedy described the alleged sexual encounter this way: ‘[i]t was consented’; Rose was ‘not trying to hurt me’; and Rose acted ‘gently.’ Kennedy reiterated: ‘It was okay. He was fine. … I did not consider it rape. It was consensual.'”
Kennedy’s lawsuit was filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which allowed accusers to file claims against their alleged abusers after the statute of limitations expires.
Rose’s lawyers are saying that Kennedy is taking advantage of the legislation for financial reasons, saying, “The ASA appears to have changed Kennedy’s calculus. Despite having made clear and definitive statements, both before and after the height of the ‘Me Too’ movement, that her alleged sexual encounter with Rose was consensual, her position has now shifted. The belief that the statute of limitations had re-opened and that she could profit from claiming – for the first time, nearly 35 years later – that the incident had not in fact been consensual, was apparently too great an opportunity to pass up, and so she filed this false Complaint a mere two days before its expiration.”
Rose’s legal team want sanctions levied against Kennedy and her lawyers for allegedly “engaging in frivolous conduct, making materially false statements, engaging in conduct undertaken primarily to harass and maliciously injure Defendant, and failing to conduct reasonable inquiry and diligence.”
The complaint against Rose claims, “Kennedy did not consent and felt overpowered. Kennedy had just witnessed Rose violently have sex with another woman… He dragged Kennedy to his bedroom like a caveman and acted with uncontrolled fury. Rose had physically stopped her from leaving and locked her in. Kennedy was trapped… She understood that the safest thing to do was to lie in bed and wait for Rose to finish assaulting her.”
Do you think we’ll hear the settlement details?
