Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler is accused of another sexual assault. In a lawsuit filed in a New York court on Thursday, Jan Bellino, a former teenage model, accuses the musician of assaulting her when she was a teenager. Ballino claims she met Taylor in the summer of 1975 when she was 17 and he was 27, and that he aggressively forced himself on her on two separate occasions on the only day they saw each other.
According to the lawsuit, Balino met Taylor after a friend of hers arranged a meeting between them and the band members at a Manhattan hotel after a fashion show she attended. After the meeting, Bellino and her friend walked across Sixth Avenue in New York with the singer and his entourage. She said she asked Tyler a question related to the lyrics of one of his songs, which she said upset him, after which he dragged her to a phone booth on the street.
Steven Tyler performing with Aerosmith at the 2020 Grammys, Photo: Reuters
"While holding her hostage, Tyler pushed his tongue down her throat and placed his hands on her body, breasts, buttocks, and private parts," the lawsuit states. "He went on to remove items of clothing and pinned her against the wall in the phone booth. While fondling her organs, he simulated a sexual act in his garden. His friends stood outside the cell laughing, and while passersby witnessed the incident, none of his entourage intervened."
The lawsuit further alleges: "Tyler's penis was pressed against her and it was clear to her that he was not wearing underwear through his thin pants." Eventually, according to the prosecution, she broke free of his grasp and exited the phone booth after raising her knee as an act of resistance and pulling his hair." Baleino claims she escaped from the phone booth "in a state of shock and fear."
"My bandmate and Taylor's entourage watched, laughed and took no action to stop what was happening," it said. According to the lawsuit, Balino continued to spend time with Tyler and his men that evening because she relied on her friend to take her home at the end of the evening in her car. She also says that the group returned to the Warwick Hotel, where the evening opened. There, near the hotel bar area, Tyler forced himself on her again. Then, she claims, he kissed her against her will and whispered in her ear that he "went to his room to do something quickly" and said he would call her to come to her room later.
Steven Tyler, Photo: Hai Shalom
Later that night, sobbing and shaking, Tyler called the hotel lobby and told her she could go up to his room. According to Balino - because she was terrified at the time, she felt paralyzed and could not speak. She said she quickly fled the hotel at that moment, and after returning home, told her sister what had happened that evening.
"Since the incident, Bellino has suffered and will continue to suffer great mental and physical pain, severe emotional harm, embarrassment, humiliation, along with physical, personal and psychological injuries," the lawsuit alleges. It added that the plaintiff was hospitalized and sought medication "to deal with the sexual assault and long-term physical harm associated with the trauma," nearly five decades later.
The lawsuit comes about a year after a woman named Julia Misley filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles court, alleging Tyler sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager in 1970. Misley alleged Tyler began sexually assaulting her when she was just 16 years old, in 1973. She also claimed that the veteran star got her pregnant in 1975 when she was 17 and that he convinced her to have an abortion. Tyler denied Misley's allegations, though he confirmed that he had a sexual relationship with her.
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