Adams could face legal issues
Article says he exchanged sexual texts with underage girl
LOS ANGELES — In the wake of a bombshell New York Times article in which multiple women accuse Ryan Adams of sexual misconduct — allegations Adams has denied — the question arises of how much legal trouble the singer may now be in.
The allegations fall short of sexual assault: Seven women, including ex-wife singer and actress Mandy Moore, and more than a dozen other associates describe “a pattern of manipulative behaviour in which Adams dangled career opportunities while simultaneously pursuing female artists for sex,” the article alleges.
“Music was a point of control for him,” Moore said.
But far more problematic is the accusation that Adams exposed himself sexually during a video call with an underage girl who allegedly had lied about her age.
That woman, now 20, provided the Times with thousands of text messages she says she exchanged with Adams when she was underage.
“I would get in trouble if someone knew we talked like this,” Adams wrote to her in November 2014, when he was about 40 and she was 15 or 16.
“If people knew they would say I was like R Kelley lol,” he wrote later. R&B singer R. Kelly is another musician who has been accused of inappropriate sexual behaviour, some of it involving minors.
“It’s premature to say that any specific charges would be filed because many details in the article are vague,” Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, tells Variety.
“But solicitation of sex from a minor is certainly one possible charge. It depends on whether he believed she was underage.”
Shortly after the article published, Adams tweeted, “The picture that this article paints is upsettingly inaccurate. Some of its details are misrepresented; some are exaggerated; some are outright false. I would never have inappropriate interactions with someone I thought was underage. Period.”
Adams and the girl, referenced only as “Ava,” engaged in multiple sexually oriented texts and Skype sessions when she a minor, the article alleges.
Adams asked her age repeatedly. Sometimes she lied, sometimes she didn’t answer, but she never provided him with proof.
“It depends on whether he believed she was underage,” Levenson says.
“A prosecutor could argue that he thought she was underage and that’s why he kept asking, but a defence attorney would say no, he asked because he didn’t want to be involved” with an underage girl.
Defence lawyer Anthony Salerno says, “He could be on the hook for contact with a minor if prosecutors thought it was ‘intentional blindness’ regarding her age, or a ruse to create the appearance that he didn’t know when he really did — like he was trying too hard to make himself look good.”
Mandy Moore has insisted that speaking your truth is “always worth it” following the publication of her allegations against ex-husband Ryan Adams.
In an expose published in The New York Times on Wednesday, the This Is Us actress claimed the musician, who she was married to between 2009 and 2015, was psychologically abusive during their relationship and his controlling behaviour allegedly hurt her music career, allegations which Ryan has denied.
Following the publication of the piece, Mandy, who is now married to rocker Taylor Goldsmith, shared her portrait from the article on Instagram and told her followers coming forward is hard but ultimately worthwhile.
“Speaking your truth can be painful and triggering but it’s always worth it.
“My heart is with all women who have suffered any sort of trauma or abuse. You are seen and heard. #sisterhoodforever,” she wrote.
Via his lawyer, Ryan told the Times that Mandy’s description of their relationship was “completely inconsistent with his view” of it and that he was supportive of her “well-deserved professional success.”