Photo Credit: Steven Tyler by Gage Skidmore / CC by 2.0
Steven Tyler heads to trial for allegations of child sexual assault back in the ‘70s. A judge has dismissed much of the case, citing the statute of limitations in Massachusetts.
Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler has been accused of grooming, sexually assaulting, and impregnating a 16-year-old in the 1970s in a lawsuit first filed in 2022. While much of that case has been dismissed due to the statute of limitations, a portion of the case will still be tried, meaning Tyler will be heading to trial.
Last week, a judge dismissed most of the original case, citing the statute of limitations in Massachusetts, where Tyler and the alleged victim lived during their three-year relationship. However, they reportedly crossed state lines while Tyler was touring the country with Aerosmith—including to California. Because of California’s 2020 statute, the Child Victims Act, which allows an additional window in which alleged victims can file lawsuits regardless of the time that has passed, a portion of the case is still headed to trial.
According to the suit, Tyler “used his role, status, and power as a well-known musician and rock star” to exploit Julia Misley, who was 16 at the time. The complaint also points out that Tyler even admitted to the allegations in his memoir, Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?, in which he refers to Misley as his “teen bride.”
Still, because most of the case has been dismissed, Tyler’s attorney, David Long-Daniels, called the move “a massive win.” “Today, the court has dismissed with prejudice 99.9% of the claims against Mr. Tyler in this case,” Long-Daniels told Billboard. “The court has decided that only one night, fifty-plus years ago, out of a three-year relationship is allowed to remain.”
The lawsuit claims that Tyler and Misley met at an Aerosmith concert in 1973, where he “performed various acts of criminal sexual conduct upon [her] that night.” Tyler was in his 20s, and Misley was 16 at the time.
The following year, the lawsuit claims Tyler was named Misley’s legal guardian and took her on tour with the band. The filing also claims that Misley’s alleged subsequent pregnancy ended in a “pressured” abortion.
But more damning than the allegations themselves are Tyler’s own version of events, as he described the relationship in his 2011 memoir: “She was 16, she knew how to nasty […] with my bad self being twenty-six and she barely old enough to drive and sexy as hell, I just fell madly in love with her. […] I was so in love I almost took a teen bride. I went and slept at her parents’ house for a couple of nights, and her parents fell in love with me, signed papers over for me to have custody, so I wouldn’t get arrested if I took her out of state. I took her on tour with me.”
