The woman who claims to have been sexually abused by Bob Dylan while she was a child has changed the details of when she says the incidents occurred.
The anonymous woman, named as “JC” in legal documents, filed a lawsuit against the singer/songwriter in August. Back then she claimed that Dylan abused her over the course of six weeks in April and May of 1965 at his Chelsea Hotel apartment in New York.
The lawsuit states that Dylan “befriended and established an emotional connection” with the girl, who was 12 years old at the time. He is accused of both physical and emotional abuse.
JC, who is now 68, claims she “sustained physical and psychological injuries, including but not limited to, severe emotion and psychological distress, humiliation, fright, dissociation, anger, depression, anxiety, personal turmoil and loss of faith, a severe shock to her nervous system, physical pain and mental anguish, and emotional and psychological damage.”
“The 56-year-old claim is untrue and will be vigorously defended,” a spokesperson for Dylan reacted at the time.
The woman’s claims were thrown into doubt when author and Dylan expert Clinton Heylin disputed her timeline of the abuse.
“Dylan was touring England during that time,” Heylin revealed. “[Dylan] was in Los Angeles for two of those weeks, plus a day or two at Woodstock. The tour was 10 days, but Bob flew into London on April 26th and arrived back in New York on June 3rd. If Dylan was in New York in mid-April, it was for no more than a day or two. Woodstock was where he spent most of his time when not touring.”
JC’s lawyer, Daniel Isaacs, dismissed Heylin’s claims and said his client would “stand by the pleading.”
Isaacs has now amended the wording of JC’s lawsuit, which now claims the abuse took place over “a period of several months in the spring of 1965.”
“The amended complaint recycles the same fabricated claims as the original complaint filed in August,” a spokesperson for Dylan responded. “They were as false then as they are now. We will pursue all legal options, including pursuing sanctions against the attorneys behind this shameful, defamatory and opportunistic case.”
“Bob Dylan, the so-called voice of a generation, should not, through his spokesperson, seek to divert attention from the issue at hand,” countered Peter Gleason, another of JC’s legal representatives. “While Dylan will have his opportunity to defend the allegations, allowing his spokesperson to threaten the victim’s attorneys is deplorable.“
