Motown singer Smokey Robinson has been accused of rape, sexual battery, and workplace negligence in a new lawsuit filed by four women who worked as housekeepers in the artist’s California home. Robinson’s wife, Frances Robinson, is also named as a defendant and is accused of “berating” the women and creating a hostile work environment. The four women, going by Jane Doe 1 through 4 in the complaint, are seeking $50 million in damages.
Filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, the complaint, which has been reviewed by the Cut, lays out an alleged pattern of sexual assault by Smokey Robinson that goes back to 2004. Each woman claims that Robinson would get her alone in his bedroom, whereupon he would rape her on his bed. The defendants, some of whom worked for Robinson for more than a decade, claim the assaults happened regularly. One Jane Doe claimed she was raped at least 20 times during her 12-year tenure as a housekeeper.
In a statement provided to the Cut, Robinson’s attorney slammed the allegations as “vile” and “false,” calling the lawsuit “an ugly method of trying to extract money from an 85-year-old American icon.”
“We ask anyone following this case to reserve judgment as the evidence comes to light and all the actual facts of the case unfold,” the attorney, Christopher Frost, said.
On Wednesday, the Daily Mail got ahold of the 85-year-old singer on the phone. Robinson told the tabloid, “I am appalled.” He then reportedly “mumbled incoherently” before saying, “I can’t speak about this right now,” and ending the call.
According to the complaint, Robinson would sometimes emerge from the bathroom naked with an erect penis and force the women to perform oral sex on him. Other times, he would digitally penetrate them or perform oral sex on them without their consent. Three of the women claim that Robinson did not wear condoms during the alleged assaults.
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The Jane Does also claim that Frances Robinson “perpetuated a hostile work environment” for them. Frances Robinson allegedly “berated” the women with “derogatory, racially charged epithets,” assigned them extra work, and forbade them from exercising their rights to breaks and meals. In one instance, Smokey Robinson told Jane Doe 2 that if she refused to have sex with him, he would make his wife be “mean” to her, which Doe claims she was “very capable of being.”
None of the women filed police reports. Each stated that she was “unwilling to report” due to “fear of losing her livelihood, familial reprisal, public embarrassment, shame and humiliation to her and her family, as well as being threatened and intimidated by Defendant Smokey Robinson’s well-recognized celebrity status and his influential friends and associates,” the complaint states. Three of the plaintiffs also mentioned avoiding law enforcement due to “the possible adverse effect on [their] immigration status.”
In a press conference on Tuesday, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, John Harris, called Robinson “a serial and sick rapist.” Harris also noted that the Jane Does were all “Hispanic women who were employed as housekeepers by the Robinsons, earning below minimum wage.” “As low-wage workers in vulnerable positions, they lacked the resources and options to protect themselves,” he told reporters.
The Cut has reached out the Jane Does’ lawyer. We will update this post when we hear back.
