Judge sets new trial date for Steven Tyler’s sexual assault case

A judge has set a new date for the Steven Tyler sexual assault trial, relating to accusations of abusing a minor in the 1970s.

Julia Misley alleged that Tyler had “groomed” and “manipulated” her as a teenager decades ago , and claimed that he had admitted as much by referring to her as his “teen bride” in his memoir.

Misley (formerly Holcomb) filed a lawsuit against the singer back in 2022, claiming she was the unnamed teenager he referred to in his book and alleging that he had abused his fame to win control over her, which resulted in signing an agreement with her parents to take legal guardianship. She also claimed that he sexually assaulted her for three years starting in 1973, when she was just 16-years-old.

Tyler’s lawyers have characterised that period as a consensual “romantic relationship” between a man “in his mid-20s at the time” and a woman “between the ages of 16 and 19”, and have argued that it was legal under the age of consent.

Judge Sets Steven Tyler Sex Assault Trial Date https://t.co/bkWwvoSWEQ

It has been a long time waiting for the case to come to trial, and back in September Judge Patricia Young recused herself from the case just two weeks before a trial was set to commence. This, she said, was due to disclosing elements of the case to another judge.

Rolling Stone reports that Judge Lawrence Riff will now preside over the trial, and will be the fifth judge to take on the role.

Riff has said that he will disregard any previous rulings made by Young, should either party request it, because “both parties here are entitled to have the peace of mind at the end of the case that everything was on the up and up and proper, and that there’s no lingering shadow of doubt of possible impropriety”.

Back in April, Judge Young dismissed the majority of a child sexual assault lawsuit against Tyler , saying that much of it was barred by the statute of limitations in Massachusetts, where the pair lived throughout their three-year relationship.

The judge also dismissed accusations relating to conduct in Washington and Oregon, where the pair also briefly travelled, for the same statute-of-limitations reasons. She did, however, rule that Misley can sue over an alleged sexual encounter during a brief trip to California, where time limits do not apply because of a special sexual abuse law.

“This is a massive win for Steven Tyler,” his lawyer, David Long-Daniels, said in a statement to Billboard . “Today, the Court has dismissed with prejudice 99.9 per cent of the claims against Mr. Tyler in this case. The court has decided that only one night, 50-plus years ago, out of a three year relationship is allowed to remain. We look forward to trying this case on August 31.”