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Judge rules Nick Carter can countersue rape accuser

A judge has ruled that Nick Carter can countersue the woman who accused him of rape.

A Las Vegas judge ruled on Wednesday that the Backstreet Boys singer can pursue his countersuit against Shannon Ruth, the woman who sued him in December alleging that he raped her after a 2001 concert in Washington State.

After Ruth filed her complaint, Carter responded with a countersuit in February, claiming that he had been the victim of a "five-year conspiracy" that aimed to "harass, defame and extort" him by exploiting the #MeToo movement.

Ruth's attorneys argued that the countersuit violated Nevada's anti-SLAPP law - a statute designed to prevent lawsuits filed in an effort to stifle free speech.

However, Judge Nancy Alff denied that an anti-SLAPP motion was necessary and allowed Carter's countersuit to move forward in the Wednesday court hearing, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

In her original suit, Ruth alleged that Carter had raped her following a 2001 concert, when she was 17 years old. Now 39 years old, she alleged that she waited over 20 years to speak out because the singer had threatened her with retaliation.

"He told plaintiff she would go to jail if she told anyone what happened between them," Ruth's lawyers wrote in the initial documents. "He said that he was Nick Carter, and that he had the power to do that. Due to his various threats, plaintiff did not report Carter's crimes for many years."

When requesting to dismiss Carter's countersuit, her lawyers wrote, "He seeks to use his wealth and celebrity status to outlast plaintiff... All while hiding behind being the 'victim' of the #MeToo movement and the preposterous notion that plaintiff is only seeking attention and publicity."

Photo: Cover Media
Source: Cover Media
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