A former girlfriend of Marilyn Manson who had accused him of abuse has backed away from those allegations in a declaration of support filed in his defamation lawsuit against Evan Rachel Wood.
Ashley Morgan Smithline alleges that she publicly accused Manson of sexual assault and sexual battery only because she was pressured by Wood, according to a declaration filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
A representative for Wood did not immediately return a request for comment on the allegations but has previously denied coercing women into making accusations.
Wood has said that she was “horrifically abused” by Manson for years.
Manson has denied any wrongdoing.
The entertainer, whose legal name is Brian Warner, filed a defamation suit against Wood last year, accusing her of having “secretly recruited, coordinated and pressured” women to accuse him of abuse.
Smithline came forward with allegations against Manson in an interview with People magazine in May 2021. She accused him of subjecting her to physical, sexual and psychological abuse between 2010 and 2013.
Manson was accused of conduct that included whipping Smithline, carving his initials into her body and penetrating her while she was unconscious. The People report included a photo of Smithline in a towel, showing what appeared to be a scar on her thigh that she referenced in the interview and alleged was caused by Manson.
Smithline told People that she began to heal only after speaking with other women about their experiences with Manson in 2020. She said that meeting others, including Wood, helped to lessen “these feelings of guilt and shame.”
In the new court document, Smithline says she felt “manipulated” by the women to make the allegations. She said in the declaration of support that she had denied being abused when speaking with Wood in 2020.
“When I said, no this did not happen to me and this was not my experience, I recall being told by Ms. Wood that just because I could not remember did not necessarily mean that it did not happen,” Smithline said in her filing.
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Smithline filed a federal lawsuit in 2021 accusing Manson of sexual assault, human trafficking and unlawful imprisonment. The suit was dismissed without prejudice by a judge last month after her attorney, Jay Ellwanger, withdrew from her case and Smithline failed to respond to the court’s request for a decision on new representation.
Ellwanger has also represented “Game of Thrones” actor Esmé Bianco, a Manson accuser who settled her claims outside court in January. Smithline said in her declaration that it was Bianco who suggested Ellwanger as potential representation.
Smithline accused Ellwanger of including “untrue” claims of violence and non-consensual sexual activity in the 2021 complaint he filed on her behalf in the District Court for the Central District of California.
Ellwanger told NBC News he could not get into details regarding Smithline’s allegations against him, citing ethical obligations of client confidentiality, but denied her characterization of his representation as “categorically and verifiably false.”
Howard King, Manson’s attorney, said Thursday that Smithline’s testimony proves that the allegations against his client are untrue.
“As we have always said, the coordinated campaign of #MeToo lies against Brian Warner is going to go down as one of the greatest hoaxes of all time,” King said. “Vulnerable women were manipulated by unscrupulous individuals seeking to build their own brands and pursue their own vendettas.”
Wood has denied the allegations in Manson’s defamation suit, which includes a claim that she forged a letter from the FBI to convince other women to take part in her documentary about abuse, “Phoenix Rising” which aired on HBO last year.
In an opposition motion, Wood’s attorney accused Manson of filing the defamation suit as retaliation for her decision to go public with her abuse allegations. The motion accuses Manson of trying to silence Wood.
Wood testified to a House Judiciary subcommittee in 2018 that she had been raped twice, first by an abusive partner and then by a man in the storage closet of a bar. She did not name her alleged abusers at the hearing.
In an Instagram post in 2021, she accused Manson of “grooming me when I was a teenager” and said he “horrifically abused me for years.”
Manson has not been charged with any crime connected to Wood’s allegations. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department submitted a case for review to the district attorney’s office in September following a 19-month investigation by the special victim’s unit.
The prosecutor’s office has not given a public update regarding a decision on whether Manson will face charges.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
