Warning: This story contains details of alleged sexual assault and can affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone who is affected.
Four former Smokey Robinson housekeepers claimed in a lawsuit that the Motown music, which she repeatedly sexually attacked, had attacked and raped them while working for him.
The complaint with the Los Angeles Court of Justice demands at least 50 million US dollars of damages on the alleged attacks that women between 2007 and 2024 and violations for workers, including an enemy work environment, illegally, long hours and lack of payment, and the enemy working environment took place.
A message that was looking for a comment from a representative of the 85-year-old Robinson was not answered immediately.
The four women each say that Robinson would wait until he was alone with them in his house in Los Angeles, and then sexually attacked them and raped them because of their objections.
“We believe that Mr. Robinson is a serial and sick rapist and has to be stopped,” said the lawyer of women, John Harris, at a press conference.
Everyone said they finally quit the attacks, although in some cases it took several years. And everyone said they feared that they were afraid of retaliation, public shame and possible effects on their immigration status.
“She left her full of shame and embarrassment,” said Harris. “During her terrible experiences with Mr. Robinson, all four women were silent.”
As a low -wage recipient, they also feared everyone to “miss a payday and not to make rent or to buy food for their families”.
All four women have held their legal names back, citing data protection concerns, and are identified as Jane in court documents. They performed with their lawyers at the press conference, but did not speak and covered their faces with masks.
A woman said she worked for Robinson and his wife Frances from 2012 to 2024 and attacked at least 20 times during this time. Another said she worked for her from 2014 to 2020 and attacked at least 23 times. Another said she worked for her for a year before giving up in 2024 and was attacked at least seven times. The fourth woman who said that she was also acting as Frances Robinson’s personal assistant, hairdresser and cook, worked for her for 18 years before returning in 2024. She quoted similar experiences to the other women, but did not say how often it was attacked.
Woman also mentioned in a suit
The women, some of whom worked for the Robinsons at the same time, also kept stories about the attacks, but now the lawyers said about their experiences.
At the press conference, they rejected details of how they reported and learned that there were others.
The lawsuit also gives Robinson’s wife as a defendant and claims that she made his behavior possible, even though she knew about past sexual misconduct. It also accuses her for the enemy work environment and said she had insulted her with a language that was part of the ethnic unrest.
The lawsuit strives for damage based on sexual battery, assault, false detention, gender -specific violence and other accusations.
“Obviously, no amount of money can compensate for what Mr. Robinson enforced them,” said Harris. However, he said that the $ 50 million was “justified due to the severity of Mr. Robinson’s loathsome and reprehensible misconduct”.
Herbert Hayden, another lawyer of the plaintiffs, said that the women believe that the attacks are worth criminal investigations, but the women would not have submitted any police reports that are based on the same fears that prevent them from going forward.
The singer, born in William Robinson, started performing as a teenager in his hometown Detroit. Finally, Berry Gordy Jr., who would form Motown Records. Robinson was an essential part of the label as an artist, producer and songwriter and achieved hits like how how ShoppingPresent The traces of my tears And The tears of a clown With his group the miracles while he helps to write my girl Through the temptations and Is not so strange By Marvin Gaye, among other things, hits.
He was included in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame and received the Gershwin Prize for Lifetime Contributions to Music in 2016.
Robinson released his last album two weeks ago. What the world needs nowAnd should be in Biloxi on Friday. will be resumed on tour, whereby concert data is planned to be planned in the United States and in the UK until September
