When Heather Taylor voluntarily dismissed her 2023 lawsuit accusing Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee of sexually assaulting her in a helicopter decades earlier, Lee’s lawyer described the move as a “complete vindication” for his client. He called the allegations “bogus and false.”
On Tuesday, Taylor refiled her claims, relying on a new California law that her attorneys had cited when they withdrew the original complaint. The statute, Assembly Bill 250, was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last October and took effect on Jan. 1. It opened a new two-year lookback window allowing previously time-barred civil claims against individual defendants accused of sexual assault on an adult. Taylor says the renewed filing is her version of vindication.
“If anyone thought my prior dismissal was a retreat, they vastly miscalculated my stamina,” Taylor tells Rolling Stone. “I dismissed my own case to await this legislation. Now that I have the law in my favor, I’m seeking justice.”
Taylor’s new 14-page complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, largely mirrors her original lawsuit and an interview with Rolling Stone last year. Taylor, a former bank teller, says she ended up “trapped” with Lee, thousands of feet in the air, after she met helicopter pilot David Martz through her job at San Diego Metro Bank and accepted his invitation to take a sightseeing flight in early 2003.
According to the lawsuit, it wasn’t until Taylor arrived at the airfield that Martz informed her of a last-minute change in plans. As they walked toward the hangar, Lee was already waiting by the helicopter to join them, she alleges. Almost immediately after takeoff, the two men began consuming alcohol, cocaine, and marijuana in the cockpit, her filing alleges. Taylor says she was shocked and refused to participate, prompting the men to tease her for “being prudish.”
Taylor says the men eventually “cajoled” her into joining them in the cockpit to get a better view, at which point Lee allegedly pulled her onto his lap. Taylor claims Lee groped and kissed her and then forced his hand into her pants, penetrating her with his fingers. The complaint further alleges Lee pushed Taylor’s head toward his genitals in an attempt to force oral sex.
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Taylor says she resisted while Martz allegedly chuckled in amusement. She claims Lee finally released her and acted unfazed when they dropped him off at Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles. She rode back to San Diego with Martz in silence and silently lived with the trauma for years, too afraid to report what happened to the police, she claims.
Martz later died in a single-engine plane crash in 2015. The Los Angeles Times reported he had a lengthy disciplinary history, including multiple license suspensions. One revocation in 2009 followed footage showing him receiving oral sex from a pornographic film performer while hovering over San Diego. He was also charged with a misdemeanor in 2006 for landing a helicopter on a public road in the Hollywood Hills to pick up Lee for a Nine Inch Nails concert. He received three years of probation.
For years, Taylor believed her opportunity to sue had expired, she says. That changed in late 2022, when California lawmakers passed the Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act, which created a limited retroactive window for certain adult sexual abuse claims. Because Taylor’s allegations predated 2009, the law required her to show that a business entity was legally responsible for damages arising from the alleged assault and that it had participated in covering up a prior assault.
Taylor filed her lawsuit in December 2023, hoping that discovery would allow her to establish those facts. Lee challenged the complaint, and in May 2024, a judge provisionally dismissed it with leave to amend, finding that Taylor had failed to plead sufficient facts showing a concerted cover-up or that Lee operated through a loan-out company at the time. Rather than amend the complaint and risk another adverse ruling that could permanently terminate her claims, Taylor voluntarily withdrew the case to await the new legislation. Under AB 250, plaintiffs can sue alleged perpetrators of adult sexual assault without having to name an entity or prove there was a cover-up.
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As AB 250 neared passage last year, Taylor stepped forward publicly. She broke down crying in an interview with Rolling Stone as she recalled the alleged incident. “It was a horrific experience. I felt like they made a mockery out of me,” she said. Taylor said her decision to dismiss her lawsuit was a difficult one. “Everybody came for me,” she said. “I felt silenced. I wanted people to know I’m real. I’m not this ghost.”
Taylor’s renewed lawsuit includes claims for sexual battery, gender violence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligence. She’s asking for unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and demanding a jury trial.
Lee’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment on Monday.
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“Ms. Taylor’s allegations are anything but false and bogus,” her lawyers Jeffrey H. Reeves, Daniel L. Weiss, and Lindley G. Round write in her new complaint. “As a result of having been sexually assaulted by Mr. Lee, Ms. Taylor has suffered severe and lasting emotional, physical, and psychological distress. The trauma she endured has affected her interpersonal relationships, limited her ability to maintain employment, and devastated her mental health.”
With her new filing, Taylor says she wants her case decided on its merits, not a procedural technicality. “When his counsel said it was a win for them, that was the most irritating part,” she tells Rollins Stone. “Refiling my case is a huge win for me.”
