JAZZ STAR HIT IN PROTÉGÉ SEX SUIT
He’d filed over her #MeToo
Jazz saxophone star Steve Coleman has been countersued by a former teen protégé who claims he sexually harassed her during an “abusive” five-year relationship.
Brooklyn musician Maria Grand filed her paperwork in federal court on Tuesday, claiming Coleman defamed her, hurt her career and caused emotional distress when he branded her a liar in his own defamation suit filed last month.
Coleman, 62, included in his prior complaint a lengthy letter that Grand, 26, wrote about her experience with him, starting with their May 2009 meeting at the Jazz Gallery in Manhattan.
Grand was 17 at the time while Coleman was 52 and a rising star in the music world who would go on to win a MacArthur genius grant in 2014.
The letter, sent privately to a group of their colleagues, said Coleman almost immediately propositioned Grand for sex and groomed her to engage in a quid pro quo sexual relationship. She alleged in the letter that Coleman would cut off his valuable mentorship and later paid gigs unless she agreed to sleep with him.
In her new court filing, Grand says she stands by the letter and suggests Coleman sued her to “silence” her.
“Because of Steve Coleman’s lawsuit, my painful experiences are now part of the public record,” Grand said in a statement obtained by the Daily News.
“My decision not to respond publicly does not reflect the genuineness of the letter and is not indicative of a lack of courage to face scrutiny,” she said. “It is my opinion that Steve’s claims are attempts to shame and blame me for his behavior. While I will refrain from public discussion at this time, I will not be silenced.”
In his original paperwork filed Oct. 10 in Brooklyn federal court, Coleman claimed Grand was spreading “intentionally misleading” claims about him after she helped start a #MeToo group for musicians.
He vehemently denied any misconduct in his 11page lawsuit seeking at least $1 million in damages.
Coleman called his relationship with Grand “consensual” and claimed her actions were “malicious in nature, taken solely to damage (his) reputation and career.”
He even claimed that on April 4, 2012, Grand proposed in an email that they engage in a “three way sexual relationship” with his wife.
Grand answered his complaint as she filed her countersuit this week. She did not deny sending electronic messages to Coleman but said they were the product of his “manipulation.”
Coleman knew that he held a position of authority over Grand and used his position as a jazz industry gatekeeper to “punish or retaliate against” her whenever she refused his demands, her paperwork states.
“(Coleman) manipulated (Grand) emotionally, threatened her career, yelled at her, and withheld performance opportunities unless (she) engaged in sexual activity with (him),” her countersuit claims.
Grand alleges in her filing that Coleman’s “continued harassment” since she wrote her letter amounts to “extreme, outrageous, egregious, and utterly despicable conduct that has caused (her) severe emotional distress and anxiety.”
Grand claims she only sent her letter to select people who “shared her interest in effecting positive change in the jazz industry” and “purposefully” kept the group private.
In the letter, she alleged that Coleman first hit on her during their second lesson in New York, when she was 17 years old.
“(He) told me straight up that he wanted to have sex with me. I was shocked. I had NO idea someone who’s in their fifties and who’s widely considered a great musician can say something like that to a 17-year old girl,” she wrote.
Grand wrote that she rebuffed Coleman at first but continued to seek his tutelage. She recalled feeling uneasy when he photographed her sleeping and said he flew into a rage when she declined his request for a chest massage after she turned 18.
“When I refused he got really angry with me, telling me again that I was uptight, that I was brainwashed into thinking that society had rules. He said many times that people like Charlie Parker knew not to follow these rules,” she wrote.
Grand wrote in the letter that she eventually ended up sleeping with Coleman and at one point felt she was in love with him. But she said she later came to see their on-off relationship as abusive.