Smokey Robinson accused by former housekeepers of sexual assault
Legendary Motown musician Smokey Robinson faces allegations of sexual assault from housekeepers who sued him on Tuesday for $50 million.
Film and television star Michael Pitt has been arrested on sexual abuse charges.
The “Boardwalk Empire” star was arrested on May 2, a clerk for the Kings Supreme Criminal Court in Brooklyn, New York, confirmed. He was then arraigned on charges of sexual abuse, assault, and strangulation, according to court documents reviewed May 7 by USA TODAY.
The charges stem from a series of alleged incidents between 2020 and 2021, in which Pitt is accused of subjecting a woman to unwanted touching, nonconsensual oral sex, strangulation and several physical assaults using a four-by-four plank and a cinderblock.
Pitt, who was released on a $100,000 bail, has pleaded not guilty.
“Unfortunately, we live in a world where somebody like Mr. Pitt — an accomplished professional who would never so much as contemplate these crimes — can be arrested on the uncorroborated word of an unhinged individual,” Jason Goldman, an attorney for Pitt said in a statement May 7.
“In reality, this baseless claim is suspiciously raised some four or five years after the alleged incident, at a time when the two parties were in a completely consensual and voluntary relationship,” he continued. “This case will be dismissed.”
A multi-hyphenate, Pitt has dabbled in music, modeling and acting, rising to acclaim in the early 2000s with roles in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” “The Dreamers” and “Murder by Numbers.”
This does not represent his first run-in with the law. Pitt was also arrested and charged in 2022 for assault and larceny after allegedly hitting a man multiple times and stealing his phone. That same year, he was hospitalized after allegedly tossing items down at people from a rooftop, according to Variety and Rolling Stone.
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