Smokey Robinson is proven attending the screening for The Apollo in the course of the 2019 Tribeca Movie Competition on April 24, 2019, in New York.
Charles Sykes//Invision/AP
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Charles Sykes//Invision/AP
This report incorporates descriptions of bodily and sexual violence.
LOS ANGELES — Legendary Motown singer, songwriter and musician Smokey Robinson is being criminally investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division following allegations accusing him of a sequence of sexual assaults courting again to 2014.
The accusations got here final week in a civil swimsuit filed by 4 former housekeepers who labored for the 85-year-old Robinson, during which they’re asking for $50 million in damages. An lawyer for the singer denies the allegations.
In a written assertion, the Sheriff’s Division on Thursday mentioned, “The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division Particular Victims Bureau is actively investigating legal allegations involving William Robinson aka ‘Smokey Robinson.’ The investigation is within the early levels, and now we have no additional remark.”
Within the civil lawsuit, the 4 ladies, recognized solely as Jane Does 1 by 4, accuse Robinson of what their lawyer, John Harris, calls “sexual battery, assault, false imprisonment, gender violence and making a hostile work setting.”
Robinson lawyer denies accusations
An lawyer for the performer, Christopher Frost, claims the accusers filed their police report solely after the civil swimsuit was filed to publicize their case.
Submitting the report requires the Sheriff’s Division to open an investigation.
In a written assertion, Frost mentioned, “We really feel assured {that a} dedication will probably be made that Mr. Robinson did nothing improper, and that it is a determined try and prejudice public opinion and make much more of a media circus than the plaintiffs have been beforehand capable of create.
“The file will in the end display that that is nothing greater than a manufactured lawsuit.”
The civil lawsuit additionally names Robinson’s spouse, Frances Robinson.
Accusers element a number of the alleged acts
Harris final week mentioned, “Our 4 purchasers have a standard thread. They’re Hispanic ladies who have been employed as housekeepers by the Robinsons, incomes beneath minimal wage.
“As low-wage employees in weak positions, they lacked the assets and choices obligatory to guard themselves from sexual assaults all through their tenure as staff for the Robinsons.”
The lawyer says the ladies didn’t come ahead earlier due to their immigration standing.
He detailed a number of the particular allegations.
Harris mentioned within the case of Jane Doe #1, Robinson would “summon her to his blue bed room, which you will in all probability be listening to about in a while. After having simply showered, he would come out of the adjoining lavatory bare and proceed to pressure her to have intercourse with him towards her will. He sexually assaulted and raped her on this method seven occasions. She give up in February, 2024 as a result of she may not endure these sexual assaults.”
Robinson’s legendary music profession
Robinson, an iconic determine within the music trade, rose to fame within the Sixties as a member of the group the Miracles. Later it grew to become generally known as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. Based mostly in Detroit, the group helped create the “Motown Sound.”
Among the many group’s greatest hits have been “You have Actually Acquired a Maintain on Me,” “I Second That Emotion” and “The Tears of a Clown.”
Later, as a solo performer, his hits included, “Being With You,” “One Heartbeat” and “Simply to See Her,” which earned him a Grammy Award for Greatest Male R&B Vocal Efficiency.
Robinson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of fame in 1987. The Miracles have been inducted in 2012.
In 2023 Rolling Stone journal named him No. 23 of its record of “The 200 Biggest Singers of All Time.”
The journal mentioned, “the Motown empire was constructed round Robinson — when he hits these impossibly delicate excessive notes, it is the essence of romantic pleading. He was raised on Fifties doo-wop, however he invented his personal soul type with the Miracles.”
