Kesha’s ‘Hate Crime’ Charge Against Dr. Luke Thrown Out
A New York judge dismissed all but one claim Kesha has filed against producer Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald and Sony Music on Wednesday. She will not be allowed to amend her filing. The rulings all relate to the singer’s countersuit against Dr. Luke, who’d sued her for defamation and breach of contract.
New York Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich, who previously denied a temporary injunction that would allow the pop star to record elsewhere, decided that she would not hear some of the claims, due to lack of jurisdiction and other technicalities. Specifically, she ruled on the singer’s claims that the producer had drugged and raped her and that he’d committed other abuses against her.
A rep for Kesha declined to comment on the ruling. Gotttwald’s representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Judge Kornreich ruled that she did not feel Dr. Luke had shown a hatred toward women and therefore Kesha could not allege he’d carried out a hate crime against her. “Every rape is not a gender-motivated hate crime,” she wrote. She also contended that Kesha’s accusations of abuse over a 10-year period could not justify a legal claim against Dr. Luke without proof of physical violence of property damage. Although Kornreich would have considered Kesha’s claims that Dr. Luke assaulted her on an airplane and raped her in a hotel, both incidents occurred before 2008 and exist outside of New York State’s statute of limitations.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that Kornreich also dismissed Kesha’s claims that Dr. Luke intentionally tormented her. “Insults about her value as an artist, her looks, and her weight are insufficient to constitute extreme, outrageous conduct intolerable in civilized society,” the judge wrote.
The one claim that the judge did not dismiss pertains to Kesha’s contract. When Dr. Luke sued her for breach of contract, Kesha posited that the recording contract was nullified. The judge has yet to rule on this claim.
Jurisdiction played a sizable role in the judge’s decisions. Because Kesha’s allegations did not take place in New York, Kornreich will not hear her discrimination claims. THR suggests that this might prompt the singer to resume the lawsuit she filed and later paused in California. That suit was put on hold because of a clause in her contract that said legal disputes would be handled in New York.