Marilyn Manson has appealed a judge’s decision to throw out parts of his defamation and emotional distress lawsuit against Evan Rachel Wood, according to court documents obtained by Rolling Stone.
Lawyers for the musician — real name Brian Warner — filed the lengthy 92-page appeal on Tuesday in Los Angeles, more than two years after he first took legal action against his former fiancée Wood and her friend, artist Illma Gore in March 2022.
Although Wood previously spoke about an ex-partner who allegedly tormented her mentally, physically and sexually, the Westworld star publicly named Warner as her abuser in February 2021. (More than a dozen other women have since come forward with their own claims of abuse against Warner, which he has vehemently denied.)
The following year, Warner sued Wood and Gore for intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation, claiming they “engaged in a malicious campaign to harm” him. However, a judge threw out a bulk of Warner’s claims against Wood and Gore last May following their anti-SLAPP motions, and ordered Warner to reimburse them nearly $500,000 in attorney fees.
Warner is now appealing that decision, again claiming he has evidence that Wood and Gore “recruited, pressured and coached others to make heinous, untrue accusations” against him through spreading “falsehoods … hack[ing] his accounts … manufactur[ing] fictitious e-mails; and ‘swatt[ing]” his home.
His attorneys have zeroed in on a letter from a purported FBI agent, which they claim is fake and forged and allegedly meant to “create the false appearance that Warner was under FBI investigation and his ‘victims’ were in danger.”
Warner’s legal team included an image of the purported forged letter, which in part reads, “Ms. Evan Rachel Wood is a key witness in connection to a criminal investigation in Los Angeles, California involving an international and well known public figure … Contact for more information regarding the safety of victims [sic] Human and Sex Trafficking crimes.”
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The letter first surfaced in Wood’s legal case with her ex-husband actor Jamie Bell in a custodial dispute over their young son. Warner’s attorneys claim the letter was used as a ploy to allow Wood’s son to stay in Nashville with her, versus with his father in Los Angeles. Warner’s attorneys allege that later, “the forged letter would be used to recruit, encourage, and convince people to claim that they were abused by Warner, because they were being led to believe that Warner was a threat to their safety and under federal investigation.”
Warner’s legal team argues the letter is evidence that Wood and Gore “campaigned” against the musician, and the court should reconsider its decision to throw out portions of Warner’s claims against the two.
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In a statement to Rolling Stone, Wood’s attorney Michael Kump said, “Warner’s appeal simply rehashes the same meritless claims which the trial court threw out. As Ms. Wood testified under oath, she did not fabricate or forge the FBI letter.”
While Warner is appealing some of the judge’s rulings, the rest of his case is still headed to trial over his accusations that Wood and Gore hacked his computers, phones and social media accounts, impersonated him online and made a fake “swatting” call.
