By KATIE McLAUGHLIN Court TV
A disabled woman is accusing Nick Carter of raping her at a concert in Washington State in 2001 when she was 17 and Carter was 21.
In a lawsuit filed yesterday in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, where Carter resides, Shannon “Shay” Ruth alleges that in February 2001, Carter invited her onto the group’s tour bus while waiting in an autograph line after a Backstreet Boys concert in Tacoma, Washington.
Shannon “Shay” Ruth alleges that in February of 2021, Carter invited her onto the group’s tour bus while she was waiting in an autograph line after a Backstreet Boys concert in Tacoma, Washington.
In a press conference broadcast on Facebook Live, Ruth — who has autism and cerebral palsy — alleged the Backstreet Boys singer sexually assaulted her on the bus.
According to the complaint, Ruth, 39, alleges Carter called her a slur, threatened to have her jailed if she told anybody what happened, and told her that no one would believe her.
She said when Carter offered her a drink, she asked for apple juice and he gave her a red drink he called “VIP juice.” Carter allegedly said it was cranberry juice, but Ruth said she believes it actually contained alcohol.
Ruth said Carter brought her into the tour bus bathroom and demanded she perform oral sex on him. She stated the singer sexually assaulted her on a bed. Ruth said she contracted HPV from the encounter.
Carter, 42, has denied the allegations through his lawyer Michael Holtz. In a statement, Holtz called Ruth’s accusations “legally meritless” and “entirely untrue.” He claimed Ruth had been “manipulated into making false allegations about Nick — and those allegations have changed repeatedly and materially over time.”
Holtz went on to say, “No one should be fooled by a press stunt orchestrated by an opportunistic lawyer — there is nothing to this claim whatsoever, which we have no doubt the courts will quickly realize.”
Carter was previously accused of rape back in 2017 by former teen pop singer Melissa Schuman, who was 18 at the time. Carter denied Schuman’s claims, saying that their encounters were consensual. The Los Angeles Police Dept. declined to pursue the case at the time due to an expired statute of limitations.
Ruth went on to say, “the last 21 years have been filled with pain, confusion, frustration, shame and self-harm that are a direct result of Nick Carter raping me.”
In the wake of the rape allegations against Carter, Variety is reporting that ABC has canceled its Backstreet Boys Christmas special that was set to air on December 14.
