In a Manhattan federal court on February 19, Bright Eyes singer Conor Oberst sought legal action against a woman who had accused him on raping her at a popular website for women. Oberst is seeking justice for the false, outrageous, despicable and defamatory statements made against him by the unnamed woman, said the Guardian.
In a post published on xojane.com, a woman accused the singer of raping her backstage following a concert in 2003. She wrote in the post, "Conor took a lot from me including my virginity, my dignity, and self-esteem," The Guardian said the woman claimed that she knew Oberst through the musician's brother, who was her English teacher at school, and was 16 at the time of introduction. The woman also claimed in the site post that she was afraid to discuss the assault for fear of the reactions from her friends and family and reasoned that it was the right time for her to post the incident after a decade to warn others.
Oberst's representation said that woman's claims were baseless considering he had company at the time of the reported assault, the Guardian wrote in its report.
TMZ, who had identified the woman as Joanie Faircloth from Oberst's lawsuit, said that according to papers filed by the musician's camp, is seeking over $1 million in damages.
Oberst's publicist since then released a statement in connection to his lawsuit against Faircloth, which read, "The lawsuit filed today outlines [the accuser's] history of inventing stories and personalities online in order to gain attention. Although her false statements about Oberst have since been deleted from the locations where they were initially posted online, Oberst's suit alleges that her malicious lies spread across the internet and are archived by multiple blogs. Through his attorneys, Oberst requested that [the accuser] recant her false accusations, but she ignored the requests. Oberst has thus been forced to proceed with this libel suit in order to set the record straight and to clear his name. Oberst is seeking to promote the truth and repair the distress this has brought upon him and his family."
Oberst's publicist said the musician will be donating the proceeds from the lawsuit to charities focused on helping women who had been victims of violence, the UK paper added.
