Bob Dylan accuser withdraws lawsuit alleging the singer sexually abused her in 1965 when she was 12

A woman who accused Bob Dylan of sexually abusing her in 1965 when she was 12 years old has dropped her lawsuit against the singer, Dylan’s lawyers said.

The singer’s lead attorney, Orin Snyder, said in a statement to USA TODAY on Thursday that the lawsuit had been “dropped and dismissed with reservations.”

“This case is closed,” Snyder said. “It is outrageous that it was even brought to trial in the first place. We are glad that the plaintiff has dropped this lawyer-driven farce.”

USA TODAY has reached out to the plaintiff’s attorney for comment.

On Wednesday, Snyder filed a letter with Judge Katherine Failla of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York demanding dismissal of the case and fines after the plaintiff allegedly deleted communications relevant to the case.

The missing messages suggested that Dylan’s accuser “destroyed evidence directly relevant to the central factual allegations in this litigation, and that evidence may be lost forever,” Snyder wrote.

In August 2021, the 81-year-old “Like a Rolling Stone” singer-songwriter, whose real name is Robert Zimmerman, was accused of sodomizing, sexually abusing and threatening physical violence against the plaintiff, identified in court documents only as “JC.” The alleged abuse occurred multiple times over a six-week period between April and May 1965, with some incidents occurring at his apartment in the Chelsea Hotel in New York.

Legal documents obtained by USA TODAY at the time said Dylan “exploited his status as a musician” to illegally give the underage girl drugs and alcohol.

Bob Dylan sued for alleged grooming, 1965 sexually abused 12-year-old girl

“Dylan’s predatory, sexual and unlawful conduct against Plaintiff amounted to a series of harmful and offensive contacts with Plaintiff’s person, all of which he did intentionally and without her consent,” says the original complaint, filed by attorney Daniel W. Isaacs.

A spokesperson for Dylan told USA TODAY at the time that “the 56-year-old claim is untrue and will be vigorously defended.”

The New York Child Victims Act, passed in 2019, opened a window for people who claim they were sexually abused as children to file lawsuits against their alleged abuser, even if their allegations would otherwise be too old for prosecution due to the statute of limitations. The “look-back” period in the law closed in August 2021, when the law expired. This lawsuit was filed the day before.

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Contributors: Jenna Ryu

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bob Dylan’s lawsuit alleging abuse of minor dropped, lawyer says