Pebe Stewart’s Words May Cost Her Some Coins Pop singer Kesha has been in a seemingly unending battle with her former manager Lukasz “ Dr. Luke ” Gottwald. Kesha’s mother, Pepe Sebert, has levied serious accusations toward Dr. Luke, believing that the manager raped her daughter. Dr. Luke has long maintained his innocence and has now gone on the offensive, suing Sebert for libel. Luke believes Sebert has made defamatory statements in interviews in an effort to “damage him and smear his name.” via Rolling Stone Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald has filed a second libel lawsuit against Pebe Sebert, Kesha’s mother, alleging that the singer’s mother has continued to defame him during his ongoing legal battle with Kesha. In Gottwald’s second lawsuit, filed September 7th in Tennessee, the producer cites a March 10th Billboard interview Sebert gave as evidence of continued defamation, Pitchfork reports. In that interview, Pebe Sebert said her daughter was a “prisoner” to Gottwald and her Kemosabe contract with the producer, and again accused Gottwald of sexually assaulting her daughter. “After we originally filed suit against Pebe Sebert, she continued to make outrageous, false, and defamatory statements against Dr. Luke in her widespread media campaign to damage him and smear his name,” Dr. Luke’s lawyer Christina Lepera said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “Pebe Sebert’s lawyers flat out refused to allow us to add those statements to the existing case or to toll the statute of limitations on them— so we’ve been compelled to file an additional action.” Pebe Sebert’s lawyer Alex Little responded to the new libel suit in a statement to Pitchfork, “This marks Dr. Luke’s second effort to sue a mother for publicly supporting and believing her daughter about being raped. It’s also a transparent attempt to delay the trial of these issues. Mrs. Sebert looks forward to presenting her case to a jury as soon as possible. When the evidence is made public, she expects the jury will conclude that all of her statements have been justified.” Gottwald’s filed his initial lawsuit against Pebe Sebert, alleging defamation and “tortious interference” with her daughter’s contract, in October 2014 in both New York and Tennessee; the New York lawsuit was dismissed since Kesha’s business matters are handled in Tennessee, where the libel suit continues. In response, Pebe Sebert filed counterclaims against Dr. Luke, accusing the producer of intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress based on Kesha’s alleged abuse. Sebert also claimed misrepresentations and fraudulent inducement stemming from an alleged promise from Gottwald that she would be involved in her daughter’s career. However, Sebert dismissed the suit against the producer in April 2016 because she “decided to move on and find peace and forgiveness in her heart rather than dwelling in the cancerous past of an ongoing lawsuit with no end in sight,” Little told Rolling Stone in a statement at the time. Gottwald’s latest legal action comes just a month after the fight between him and Kesha seemed to thaw, with the singer dropping her California lawsuit against him and providing Kemosabe with 28 new songs in order to “release her next album and single as soon as possible.” Do you think he has a valid claim?

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Sticks And Stones Break Bones But Words Cause Lawsuits: Dr. Luke Files Defamation Claim Against Pebe Stewart