Judge dismisses sexual assault lawsuit against Steven Tyler

Today, a New York City judge dismissed a lawsuit filed against Steven Tyler this past November. In the suit, former teen model Jeanne Bellino accused the Aerosmith frontman of assaulting her when he was 27 and she was 17.

According to documents obtained by USA Today, the judge granted the dismissal request—filed by Tyler—because Bellino waited too long to file under the Gender Motivated Violence Act, which covers incidents dating back to nine years prior. Bellino’s alleged assault took place 49 years ago in 1975. The judge also found that the model’s allegations did not amount to “serious risk of physical injury.” Bellino was given until March 13 to amend her complaint.

In the original suit, Bellino alleges that Tyler pushed her into a phone booth and groped and forcibly kissed her after the two met in New York City on one of her modeling trips. “As Tyler was mauling and groping Plaintiff, he was humping her pretending to have sex with Plaintiff. Others stood by outside the phone booth laughing and as passersby watched and witnessed, nobody in the entourage intervened,” the filing states (via USA Today). Bellino’s suit then alleges that Tyler assaulted her again when the two met upon returning to the lobby of the hotel where they were both staying and the musician “pinned (Bellino) against the wall, put his tongue down her throat and started humping (her), simulating sex.”

The original filing asserts that Bellino “has suffered and will continue to suffer, great pain of mind and body, severe and permanent emotional distress, physical manifestations of emotional distress, embarrassment, humiliation, physical, personal & psychological injuries,” and that she still relies on medication “to cope with the sexual assault and has suffered long-term physical injury associated with the trauma.”

Bellino’s filing came after another alleged teen victim, Julia Misley, sued Tyler in 2022 after claiming that he was granted guardianship over her so they could have a sexual relationship when she was just 16 years old in 1973. Tyler wrote about Misley (née Holcomb) in his 2004 memoir Does The Noise In My Head Bother You?, grossly referring to her as an “almost… teen bride.” In a statement at the time, Misley’s lawyer wrote that his team had never “encountered a legal defense as obnoxious and potentially dangerous” as Tyler’s claim that the then-minor Misley had consented to the relationship and that the older man had “immunity or qualified immunity to Defendant as caregiver and/or guardian.” (Misley’s parents signed over their rights so Tyler could take Misley on tour.) Misely sued Tyler for sexual battery, sexual assault, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.