Kesha Sebert v. Lukasz Gottwald

Kesha Sebert v. Lukasz Gottwald
Court	New York Supreme Court
Full case name	Kesha Sebert v. Lukasz Gottwald
Decided	Ongoing
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting	Shirley Kornreich

Kesha Sebert v. Lukasz Gottwald (also known as Kesha v. Dr. Luke) is an ongoing New York Supreme Court lawsuit in which producer Dr. Luke sued singer Kesha and her mother, Pebe Sebert, for defamation and breach of contract. This was a result of Kesha filing a civil suit against Dr. Luke in October 2014 for infliction of emotional distress, gender-based hate crimes and employment discrimination. This New York lawsuit resulted in the staying of a California lawsuit where Kesha claimed Dr. Luke was guilty of sexual assault and battery, sexual harassment, gender violence, civil harassment, violation of California's unfair business laws, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and negligent retention and supervision. In her New York counter-claim Kesha alleges that Dr. Luke "sexually, physically, verbally and emotionally" abused her since the beginning of their professional relationship. The suit alleged he drugged and raped her on two occasions, made threats against Kesha and her family, and called her derogatory names.

Dr. Luke has denied all of the allegations. In the legal documents filed in support of his defamation suit against Kesha he claims that Kesha and her mother made “defamatory statements in an attempt to extort Gottwald [Dr. Luke] into releasing Kesha from her exclusive recording agreement”.

On February 19, 2016, Kesha's request for a preliminary injunction was denied. Kesha appealed the decision the following month. On April 6, 2016, New York Judge Shirley Kornreich dismissed all of Kesha's counter-claims against producer Dr Luke. Kesha and her legal team appealed the injunction decision, and on June 7th 2016, Kesha will be recorded in a deposition stating all the allegations details.

Background

In September 2013, a Kesha fan set up a petition to "free" Kesha from Dr. Luke's management and accused Luke of "stunting" Kesha's creative growth as an artist. The petition received over 10,000 signatures. It was later revealed on My Crazy Beautiful Life that she had little creative control of Warrior, and was also stated that "Machine Gun Love", her favorite song that she had written, was omitted from the record against her wishes. Kesha had written over seventy songs that were intended for Warrior but Dr. Luke scrapped many of them. The co-director of My Crazy Beautiful Life, Steven Greenstreet, tweeted a picture in November of front row fans at one of Kesha's concerts carrying banners labelled, "Fuck Dr. Luke." Kesha's mother Pebe blamed Dr. Luke for her lack of creative input and said that she hoped that Kesha would be dropped from RCA Records.

Lawsuit

In October 2014, Kesha sued producer Dr. Luke for alleged sexual assault and battery, sexual harassment, gender violence, emotional abuse, and violation of California business practices which had occurred over 10 years working together. She claimed that Dr. Luke repeatedly drugged her, had sexual contact with her, with and without her consent, and that his abuse caused her eating disorder. Kesha asked the court to break her contract with Dr. Luke. In response, Dr. Luke filed a countersuit against Kesha for defamation, accusing her, her mother, and her management of fabricating the abuse claims to break her contract with him. In November, Dr. Luke asked the judge to dismiss Kesha's allegations of sexually abusing her. In early December, Dr. Luke filed a defamation lawsuit against Kesha's lawyer, Mark Geragos, accusing him of implications that Luke had raped Lady Gaga. Gaga's team denied any such incident. Later in December, Luke's lawyers amended the official complaint in the defamation lawsuit to introduce additional items, including a handwritten birthday card from Kesha back in 2009. Luke's attorney claimed the card is from several years after Kesha alleges he started abusing her. Other additions included several emails between Luke and Kesha's mother, where the latter wrote to him, "You are part of our family." Dr. Luke further accused Jack Rovner, president of Vector Management, of "longstanding antipathy" towards him, alleging Rovner wants more money and control of Kesha's career.

On February 18, 2015, during New York Fashion Week, Kesha wore a Discount Universe dress with the words "You Will Never Own Me" on the front of the garment, which at least one media source speculated to be an obvious jab at Dr. Luke amid Kesha's recovery. On June 9, 2015, it was reported that Kesha amended her complaint against Dr. Luke and added a suit against Sony Music Entertainment, with Kesha's lawyer claiming "Dr. Luke's proclivity for abusive conduct was open and obvious to [Sony Music Entertainment] executives, who either knew of the conduct and turned a blind eye, failed to investigate Dr. Luke's conduct, failed to take any corrective action, or actively concealed Dr. Luke's abuse." Kesha sought an injunction with Sony against working and releasing music with Dr Luke and for greater artistic freedom. Kesha's lawyer, Mark Geragos, responded about the injunction saying "She cannot work with music producers, publishers, or record labels to release new music. With no new music to perform, Kesha cannot tour. Off the radio and stage and out of the spotlight, Kesha cannot sell merchandise, receive sponsorships, or get media attention. Her brand value has fallen, and unless the Court issues this injunction, Kesha will suffer irreparable harm, plummeting her career past the point of no return." Without the injunction, her career could be effectively over. Since then, a new petition has been started by Austin Dean, in hopes of gaining awareness to Kesha's situation and support for her injunction.

Kesha's videotaped deposition

Before her legal battle against Dr. Luke, in 2011, Kesha had previously sworn under oath that the producer had never assaulted or drugged her in a deposition for a lawsuit against her former managers at DAS Communications, a key piece of evidence that played a role in the court ruling in favor of the defense. Kesha and her lawyers claimed the statements made in the deposition were false and the result of fear, being abused, bullying and rape trauma (C-PTSD) syndrome.

Trial

February 2016: Judge denies preliminary injunction

File:Ke$ha arrives at New York State Supreme Court, Manhattan.JPG

Kesha arrives at the New York State Supreme Court in lower Manhattan amidst fans shouting "Free Kesha Now!" for proceedings in a contract dispute with Dr. Luke.

On February 19, 2016, New York Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich ruled against Kesha's request for a preliminary injunction that would release her from her contract with Kemosabe Records, a label owned by Lukasz Gottwald, also known as Dr. Luke, under the umbrella of Sony Music Entertainment. The decision was made after the judge told her lawyer, Mark Geragos, that he was essentially "asking the court to decimate a contract that was heavily negotiated and typical for the industry". Further, in 2011, Kesha went on record saying that Dr. Luke had never drugged or touched her during a deposition in a case against her former managers at DAS Communications, a key piece of evidence that led to a ruling in favor of the defense. According to the defense, Gottwald had already invested $60 million in her career and also offered to allow the singer to fulfill her contract and record without his involvement. The judge also cited what she felt was vagueness in Kesha's counterclaims, referring to the lack of documentation or hospital records supporting the alleged attack.

The verdict sparked protests outside the courtroom by Kesha's supporters, and started the "#FreeKesha" movement online. Responding to the online campaign, Dr. Luke tweeted, "I didn't rape Kesha and I have never had sex with her. Kesha and I were friends for many years and she was like my little sister.' He further added that the lawsuit was 'motivated by money." On February 24, 2016, Scott A. Edelman, an attorney representing Sony stated, "Sony is doing everything it can to support the artist in these circumstances, but is legally unable to terminate the contract to which it is not a party." The reason being that Kasz Money, a company of Dr. Luke, signed the initial contract with Kesha in 2005. The company licensed the contract to various Sony Music subsidiaries such as RCA/Jive and Kemosabe Records but retained its ownership. On March 21, Kesha appealed the denial.

Reports were made of an alleged offer made to Kesha after the ruling. Kesha made social media posts stating that she was offered freedom from the recording contract with the condition that she retract the rape and drug allegations and publicly apologize for lying. According to posts Kesha made, she rejected the settlement and said the truth cannot be retracted. A spokesperson for Dr Luke denies that a settlement was ever offered.

April 2016: Judge dismisses all of Kesha's abuse claims

On April 6, 2016, New York Judge Shirley Kornreich dismissed Kesha's claims of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and gender violence.

"While Kesha's [claim] alleges that she was sexually, physically and verbally abused by Gottwald for a decade, she describes only two specific instances of physical/sexual abuse," Kornreich wrote. And the most recent event described was alleged to have happened in 2008 and so falls outside of the statute of limitations. The Judge dismissed Kesha's hate crime claim because the filings "do not allege that Gottwald harbored animus toward women or was motivated by gender animus when he allegedly behaved violently toward Kesha ... Every rape is not a gender-motivated hate crime." Kesha's claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress was dismissed by the Judge because "claims of insults about her value as an artist, her looks, and her weight are insufficient to constitute extreme, outrageous conduct intolerable in civilized society."

Reactions

Numerous celebrities reacted to the ruling. George Takei wrote, "This ruling is an unfortunate and troubling example of favoring corporations over people." Producer Brad Walsh tweeted "Forcing a woman to work with her rapist, or to work to profit her rapist, is a failure of justice." Anne Hathaway, Reese Witherspoon, Lena Dunham and Mariska Hargitay also expressed their solidarity with Kesha.

Several musicians also voiced their support for Kesha through Twitter. Miley Cyrus and Margaret Cho posted a picture of Fiona Apple holding a placard reading, "Kesha—I am so angry for you. They were wrong. I'm so sorry" on Instagram. Jack Antonoff and Zedd also offered to produce and work with Kesha, with the latter of the two eventually following through on his promise. While accepting a trophy at the Brit Awards, Adele stated, "I'd also like to take this moment to publicly support Kesha." Lady Gaga, Demi Lovato, Alessia Cara, Ariana Grande, Lily Allen, Kelly Clarkson, Lorde, Haim, Julian Thome and other artists supported Kesha through social media. The Veronicas also showed their support.

Conversely, TV host Wendy Williams sided against Kesha in the ruling, saying in an interview, "Unfortunately business is business, and it sounds like it's fair. If everybody complained because somebody allegedly sexually abused them and was ripping them off, then contracts would be broken all the time." However, after the case was thrown out and Kesha posted an Instagram photograph about her situation and the deception surrounding the case, she stated "Kesha, a) I want to apologize to you, and b) "I am woman enough to admit when I'm wrong and c) you're a hell of a woman".

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Dr. Luke's older sister Venza Gottwald defended her brother, saying that he is innocent, and criticized Kesha and her supporters.