Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter is refuting sexual assault claims by Melissa Schuman, citing witnesses who will prove the accuser wrong.
According to new legal documents, Carter claims that multiple people connected to Schuman dispute her account of what allegedly happened during an encounter in 2003 at a Santa Monica apartment.
Nick Carter’s sexual assault case includes witness testimony that challenges the allegations, according to a new legal filing
As TMZ reports, one of the key witnesses is Carter’s former roommate, James “Tony” Bass, who says he was present on the night in question. Bass testified that he saw Carter and Schuman drinking, socializing, flirting, and making out throughout the evening and never noticed any signs of distress.
He said, “[a]t no point in the night did I observe Melissa to be upset, fearful or otherwise distraught in any way,” adding that Melissa was “happy and totally comfortable throughout the night.”
The dispute dates back to 2017 when Melissa wrote in a personal blog piece that she was “forced to engage in an act against my will.” She also said the Backstreet Boy took her virginity when she was 18 and he was 22, as reported by AP News. Carter had replied in disbelief, stating, “Melissa never expressed to me while we were together or at any time since that anything we did was not consensual.”
The new paperwork also references testimony from Schuman’s former talent agent. According to Carter’s filing, the agent said Schuman described the encounter as consensual and that her emotional response stemmed from moral and religious regrets over losing her virginity rather than from an assault.
The filing also claimed that Melissa had sought Carter out and they had worked together in the years after the alleged assault – on a duet in 2004, and they had performed together at an industry showcase in 2005.
Even as the case wears on, Carter maintains that the witness statements and third-party testimony support his position that the alleged assault never occurred.
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