A Los Angeles judge on Tuesday dismissed the sexual assault and battery lawsuit filed against Marilyn Manson by his former assistant, Ashley Walters, and vacated a trial that had been scheduled to begin next month.
In his ruling, the judge said the evidence showed that Ms. Walters’ claims fell outside the statute of limitations and could not be revived based on her argument that her memories of the alleged abuse had been suppressed.
“We have a situation where the complaint was not filed until about 10 years after the operative events. I’m not able to find that the delayed discovery rule is applicable,” Los Angeles County Judge Steve Cochran said at the morning hearing. “I don’t have the authority to rule that the delayed discovery doctrine would apply under the circumstances that exist in this case.”
A lawyer for Walters said she would explore an appeal. “We’re disappointed. We think this is the wrong decision. The delayed discovery rule is specifically to address situations where victims of sexual abuse deserve the ability to seek justice when their abuser has used tactics to prevent them from coming forward,” Walters’ lawyer, Kate McFarlane, told Rolling Stone after the hearing. “This is something we see time and time again, and it seems the law hasn’t caught up to the science and what’s right for victims. But I don’t believe this is the end of the road.”
In her lawsuit, Walters alleged that Manson, born Brian Warner, lured her into a job in 2010 by complimenting her photography and offering an artistic collaboration. She claims Warner later whipped her, threw plates at her, pinned her down, bit her ear, forced her hand into his underwear and threatened her. She recalled seeing Warner throw a prop skull at his former fiancée, Evan Rachel Wood, “so hard” that it allegedly left “a large, raised welt on her stomach.” Warner denied the allegations.
“It’s gratifying, after all these years, that a judge can just look at the facts and see that once again, Brian Warner was wrongfully accused,” Warner’s lawyer, Howard King, said after winning the motion. “It’s nice for him to get some justice, though it was at great personal cost. Now he can move on.”
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During the hearing, McFarlane argued that Walters deserved revival of her claims because she allegedly was manipulated by Warner in a way that mirrored child sexual abuse. She urged the court to look at cases where children suffered from repressed memories before seeking justice as adults.
“We have a young woman who was in her twenties, and her employer was in his forties. There’s an innate power dynamic,” she argued. “He’s very well-known, high-powered celebrity with a lot of pull in the industry, a lot of clout. This was a young women barely into her adult years being manipulated by someone with a lot of power.”
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Walters stepped forward in February 2021 as multiple women, including Wood, first accused Warner of intense physical and emotional abuse. A prior judge dismissed Walters’ lawsuit in May 2022, finding that they were too old. Walters fought the ruling and saw her lawsuit revived on appeal.
Warner, 56, has reached out-of-court settlements with several of his accusers, including Bianco. He previously decided to drop a lawsuit against Wood
