Marilyn Manson filed an appeal claiming that the accusations of sexual assault made by Wood and others against him were false, almost a year after a California judge dismissed the majority of his defamation lawsuit against the former girlfriend.
Manson claimed in the filing that the trial court judge wrongfully dismissed his defamation case without even taking into account the sworn statement of a woman who claimed she was coerced into making an accusation against Manson. He further claimed that Wood and her girlfriend Ashley Gore were involved in a plot to fabricate allegations of sexual abuse and encourage other women to do the same.
Manson claims that part of the plan was fabricating a letter purporting to be from an FBI agent, which gave the impression that Manson was being looked into.
In March 2022, Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, filed a lawsuit against Wood and Gore alleging defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress due to what he claimed was a concerted effort to portray him as a sexual abuser.
Wood had accused Manson, her ex-fiance, in public the year before of being the rapist whose horrible deeds she had described to a congressional subcommittee three years previously. In her evidence, Wood detailed in vivid detail the horrible sexual assault she had received at the hands of Manson. Following her public revelation of his identity, other women came forward to claim they had also suffered abuse.
Manson, who acknowledged threatening to rape and harm at least one woman, said that Wood and Gore had surreptitiously recruited people to bring charges against him for years to support a film project that was still in development. Manson described Wood’s claim that he is a rapist as “a malicious falsehood that has derailed Warner’s successful music, TV, and film career” in court documents.
Manson also supplied a statement from Bryton Gore, Gore’s sister, stating that she saw Wood and her sister writing false FBI letters to file accusations against Manson.
By California’s anti-SLAPP law, Wood and Gore filed a move to dismiss Manson’s complaint. Strategic lawsuits against public participation, or anti-SLAPP, statutes are designed to stop powerful people from suing their critics into silence. Teresa Beaudet, a judge in the Los Angeles Superior Court, dismissed the majority of the case in favour of Wood and Gore.
Beaudet rejected Manson’s emotional anguish allegation, which was predicated on the FBI letter that had been “falsified.” Manson said that Wood had utilised the letter in a California custody case, and Wood had denied writing it. Beaudet stated that even if the FBI letter was falsified, its use in court constituted “protected activity” for the purposes of the anti-SLAPP legislation, even though he did not expressly decide on its legitimacy.
Beaudet upheld Manson’s accusations of hacking and false impersonation.
Manson contends in an appeal that was obtained by TMZ on Thursday that Beaudet erred in dismissing his complaint against Wood and Gore because there is substantial proof that the accusations of abuse were the result of a well-planned smear campaign.
Manson contended that the court ought to have taken into account the FBI’s later testimony, which he claims was falsified by Wood, against the defendants. According to the brief, Gore’s sister saw Wood forging the letter, and Manson’s attorney verified that the letter was a fake after speaking with “the real FBI agent whose identity [sic] was stolen by Wood and Gore.”
Ashley Lindsay Morgan Smithline’s affidavit, which was included in Manson’s lawsuit, stated that she and Manson had “a brief, consensual sexual relationship” in 2010. Manson claimed in his appeal that the trial court erred in failing to take notice of this “bombshell third-party declaration.”
“Ten years later, I succumbed to pressure from Evan Rachel Wood and her associates to make accusations of rape and assault against Mr. Warner that were not true.” Smithline attested in the document.
She claimed that in 2020, Manson’s former assistant got in touch with her “to participate in a group meeting of women who, they said, had relationships or experiences with Mr. Warner.” She took part in both a meeting and a phone call. Smithline claimed that over roughly a year, she and Wood had “many communications” in which Wood accused Smithline of sexual assault and enquired as to whether Smithline had experienced similar abuse.
