Entertainment- An LA Judge has asked a former
Marilyn Manson assistant to submit a new sexual harassment complaint. - Ashley Walters worked as Manson's assistant between 2010-2011 and sued him in May 2021.
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"Reading the First Amended Complaint as a whole, plaintiff pleads that plaintiff was aware of the actions against her by the time she left her employment," Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael L. Stern wrote in his ruling. "Thus, 9 to 10 years passed until the filing of the action, far beyond the two-year limitations' periods of her claims."
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael L. Stern asked Walters' team to file an amended complaint by March 11, 2022.
Manson's team had challenged the lawsuit, denying all of the allegations and claiming that they were also past the statute of limitations.
"Moreover, given the salacious nature of the alleged conduct, which plaintiff lays out in great detail to garner as much media attention as possible and to maximize the harm to Warner's reputation, there is simply no way that plaintiff can claim, with any credibility, that she was not aware, until May 2021, that she had grounds to bring claims against Warner," Manson's attorneys wrote in their October objection to the suit.
At a January hearing, the judge declined to rule on Manson's challenge, and Walters' team offered supporting arguments for the delayed timeline, alleging that Manson had threatened Walters about speaking out in 2019.
Attorneys representing both parties did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.
Walters, Manson's former assistant, sued the artist over alleged sexual harassment, sexual assault, sexual battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to court documents.
According to the lawsuit, Walters alleged that Manson forced her to work for two days straight, during which she says she feared Manson's frequent violent and angry outbursts.
Walters accused Manson of pushing her onto his "influential industry friends and associates," including an actor, who forcefully kissed her, in September 2010. She alleged that Manson harassed her by forcefully kissing and groping her and claimed that the musician introduced her to a director that groped her multiple times and put his hand up her skirt while covering her mouth.
"It made me feel like I was his property," Walters said. "It just made me feel like a piece of meat."
The photographer also claims in the lawsuit that Manson was worried that she would speak publicly about his behavior in 2011, so he spoke poorly of her to his colleagues. In another attempt to dissuade Walters from coming forward, she claimed in the suit that Manson made her pose for pictures wearing Nazi paraphernalia with the intention of using the photos against her if they ever spoke out.
Walters said that after connecting with actress Evan Rachel Wood and other women who alleged that Manson abused them, she felt ready to speak out.