Ethan Miller/Michael Kovac/Getty Images for City of HopeDid Kesha's mom Pebe Sebert threaten Dr. Luke with an email detailing his history of sexual abuse against the singer?
According to Luke's attorney Christine Lepera, Sebert threatened to go public with sexual abuse allegations if he didn't release the 27-year-old pop star from her contract and give Sebert publishing rights to Kesha's music.
Luke's camp alleges that Sebert sent a threatening email on Oct. 29, 2013, writing, "Tomorrow I am going to start making public how Dr. Luke blackmailed me into giving him and Circuit publishing credit, on all songs I wrote on warrior, with Kesha and other writers and producers…We, me and kesha and her friends…are going to make all of this Really PUBLIC, in the next few days. Luke date raped Kesha when she was 18. Nicky Hilton's birthday? Paris Hiltons house? Luke gave Kesha pills? She ended up naked in his hotel room 2 days later, no longer a virgin? Do we want all this to come out? either this Luke releases Kesha from all legal contracts, and gives me back all my publishing, or we, Kesha and I. tell the truth. And if I wind up dead, TRUST ME, IT'S IN WRITING TO CALL YOU AND LUKE."
Kesha's lawyer Mark Geragos says Sebert wasn't trying to threaten or extort Luke in any way. "It is telling that Dr. Luke would twist an email from a horrified and justifiably angry mother threatening to tell the truth—the truth!—about the predator that sexually assaulted her daughter," Geragos told E! News in a statement. "It is offensive—but not surprising-that Dr. Luke would try and pervert the words of a concerned mother to try and keep Kesha under his unilateral control against her will."
However, Dr. Luke's camp insists Kesha's sexual abuse and battery lawsuit, which she filed earlier this week, is all part of a bigger extortion plan. Lepera additionally tells E! in a statement:
Kesha's lawsuit is a spectacular and outrageous fiction that will go down in flames. As the truth emerges, this sad and misguided smear campaign will only hurt Kesha.
This is hardly the first time that Kesha and her mother have threatened Luke with an extortionist scheme to ruin his reputation publicly unless he let her out of her contract. She did the same thing years ago.
Mr. Geragos on his press tour this week acknowledged that his client's real goal is to get out of her contract, rather than vindicate these absurd and defamatory allegations. Luke hasn't seen Kesha in years. This kind of cynical grandstanding in which false claims of abuse are used as a negotiating tactic insults real victims.
Extortion is not going to win here. We are confident the courts will decide that. Kesha's current claims are absolutely false, chief among them the preposterous accusation that Luke date raped Kesha when she was 18. The court will have more than Luke's word for this when the record in another action is revealed and Kesha is confronted with evidence of her own current lie.
The lawsuit that we filed is not in retaliation, as the other side well knows. We challenge Mr. Geragos to open confidentiality of that prior record. We further challenge him to waive the litigation privilege in connection with his lawsuit—so both Kesha and Mr. Geragos can confront the full spectrum of a defamation suit not cloaked in a litigation privilege. Mr.Geragos should stop hiding behind the litigation privilege he is exploiting solely to smear Luke.
We have been holding the lawsuit we filed in abeyance while settlement talks proceeded over the last year based on Kesha's and her mother's new threats to get out of the contract. Our lawsuit is based upon the most recent extortion scheme against Luke – which started over a year ago, both verbally and in writing.
As an example, in one email dated October 29, 2013, Kesha's mother, wrote, "Tomorrow I am going to start making public how Dr. Luke blackmailed me into giving him and Circuit publishing credit, on all songs I wrote on warrior, with Kesha and other writers and producers…"We, me and kesha and her friends…are going to make all of this Really PUBLIC, in the next few days. Luke date raped Kesha when she was 18. Nicky Hilton's birthday? Paris Hiltons house? Luke gave Kesha pills? She ended up naked in his hotel room 2 days later, no longer a virgin? Do we want all this to come out? either this Luke releases Kesha from all legal contracts, and gives me back all my publishing, or we, Kesha and I. tell the truth. And if I wind up dead, TRUST ME, IT'S IN WRITING TO CALL YOU AND LUKE."
Finally, we believe that as shameful as these attacks are they will come to haunt and hurt Kesha most as the truth about her own conduct is revealed. As anyone who has followed their behavior knows, the bizarre public statements and actions by Kesha and her mother over the years are too numerous to count.
Kesha (real name Kesha Rose Sebert) filed a lawsuit earlier this week in which she detailed Luke's history of sexual abuse and battery towards her. Kesha also claimed Luke drugged her and emotionally abused her "in order to destroy her self-confidence, self-image, and self-worth so that he could maintain complete control over her life and career." Luke (real name Lukasz Gottwald) responded with his own lawsuit alleging that all of Kesha's claims are "defamatory" and untrue.