Steven Tyler accused of 1970s sexual assault by a second woman who was a teen at the time
Steven Tyler forcibly kissed and groped a teenage girl twice in 1975 when the rock singer was 27 and she was 17, a lawsuit filed Thursday alleges.
The suit, filed by Jeanne Bellino in New York City Civil Court and obtained by The Times, is the second in as many years in which a woman has accused the Aerosmith singer, whose legal name is Steven Tallarico, of sexually assaulting her as a teen in the 1970s. The first woman, Julia Misley, sued Tyler in December 2022, alleging sexual assault and sexual battery after meeting the Aerosmith frontman in 1973 when she was 16.
While The Times does not typically identify victims of sexual assault, the women's names were released publicly by their attorney. Jeff Anderson of Anderson and Associates represents the two women in the separate cases.
In the new lawsuit, Anderson alleges that Tyler "used his power, influence, and authority, as a well-known musician to sexually assault" Bellino.
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Bellino reached out to Anderson's firm after reading about Misely's case and offered, "I want to help, I'll be a witness, because he did the same thing to me," Anderson recounted at a Thursday news conference announcing the lawsuit. At the event, he called Tyler a "sexual predator."
Attorneys for Tyler did not immediately respond to The Times' request for comment. His attorneys previously denied the allegations made in Misley's 2022 lawsuit and requested that the lawsuit be dismissed.
In summer 1975 in New York, Bellino was a teen model and worked for a children's modeling agency, frequently traveling with her modeling friends from her home in Queens into Manhattan for fashion shows, the lawsuit said. After one show, one of her friends, Bellino's ride for the day, arranged for them to meet Aerosmith at a party.
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By this point, Tyler and Aerosmith had received international acclaim for their self-titled debut 1973 album and their hit single "Dream On." Their second album, "Get Your Wings," went platinum the following year.
After the show, Bellino and her friend met Tyler, who was with an entourage of about six people, the court document said. While the group walked over to the Warwick Hotel for the party, Bellino laughed and made a comment about one of Tyler's lyrics, the suit said. Tyler allegedly became irritated by Bellino's comment, then grabbed her and forced her into a phone booth, the complaint said. While inside, Tyler allegedly stuck his tongue down her throat and groped her breasts, buttocks and genitals, while removing her clothes and pinning her against the booth, the suit said. He also pretended to have sex with her, rubbing his torso against hers, according to the lawsuit.
The entourage, her friend and passersby watched the incident unfold without intervening, with some laughing, Bellino alleged in the complaint, which also names 50 Does whom she does not know by name as defendants.
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Bellino fought back and was eventually able to grab the back of Tyler's head and pulled his long hair to free herself, the suit said. Tyler then allegedly left the booth while Bellino was left to put her clothes back on.
"It's humiliating and degrading and extremely upsetting; it's very dehumanizing to do that to someone," Bellino recalled in a video shared during the news conference. She said the encounter was her first sexual experience with anybody.
At the hotel, Bellino saw her friend go up the elevator and then Tyler allegedly pinned Bellino against the wall a second time, in the dark lobby, continuing to stick his tongue down her throat without her consent, the lawsuit said. Other individuals in the lobby, including employees, had stared on, the suit added. He eventually went up to his hotel room. As she stood in the lobby, figuring out how she would get home, a member of Tyler's entourage told her, "OK, you can go up to his room."
She declined, but the man offered to take her up there and reached out to her, the court document said. She backed away and ran for the door, the lawsuit said, where the doorman grabbed her and flung her into a cab, yelling at the driver, "Go!"
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Though she didn't have enough cash to get home, the cab driver agreed to finish the ride for whatever money she had on her after she told him she'd been assaulted, the suit said.
The driver dropped her off about a half-mile from her home, Bellino recalled in the video, her voice shaking, and she ran the rest of the way until collapsing inside her home in tears, crying to her younger sister.
The lawsuit asks for unspecified damages and alleges that Tyler inflicted "physical, psychological, and emotional injuries."
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Bellino mentioned in the video that she wanted to help "back up" Misley's account, but also sought accountability for her own experience.
In her lawsuit, Misley alleged that Tyler had assaulted her several times throughout high school in the span of several years in the 1970s. At one point, Tyler became Misley's guardian, telling her parents he would pay for things such as school and medical care, the suit said.
The lawsuit also stated that Misley had become pregnant and Tyler allegedly prevented her from seeking prenatal care and ultimately persuaded her to get an abortion in fall 1975.
Amid the allegations, Tyler had embarked on his band's Peace Out tour, billed as Aerosmith's farewell tour. However, just three stops into the 40-show tour, the band was forced to postpone the rest of its concerts after Tyler suffered a vocal cord injury. It was later determined that he had fractured his larynx.
The tour was scheduled to run until Feb. 29 — including three stops in California, a Dec. 1 show in San Francisco, a Dec. 4 show in San Jose and a Dec. 7 show at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles. New dates have not been set.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
