R&B icon Smokey Robinson, 85, has been sued for allegedly creating a hostile work environment for four women who say they were his housekeepers, during which time they were subjected to forced “sexual contact or touching” between 2007 and 2024, according to KTLA.
The accusers allege sexual battery, assault, false imprisonment, and gender violence, according to the outlet, and that Robinson touched their “entire bodies, including their vaginas, breasts, legs, abdomen, lips, and face” without consent. The founder and frontman of the Motown group The Miracles’ wife Frances Gladney is also reportedly named in the suit, which was submitted to the the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Robinson’s accusers say Gladney failed to act to prevent the alleged abuses, despite “having full knowledge of his prior acts of sexual misconduct” and “having settled cases with other women that suffered and experienced similar sexual assaults perpetuated by him.”
KTLA reports the suit says, “Plaintiffs explicitly told Defendant Robinson on numerous occasions that they were not interested in his advances and objected to his forceful, physical, sexual, and harmful conduct.” They claim Gladney “perpetuated a hostile work environment by regularly screaming at them separately in a hostile manner, using ethnically pejorative words and language.”
Each of the women has chosen to remain anonymous and are referred to as “Jane Does” in the suit, which also alleges they were not paid for overtime or for traveling with the couple. Each woman claims they did not seek help because they feared for their immigration status and “familial reprisal, public embarrassment, shame and humiliation.”
The women are seeking $50 million in damages to make them whole from the “economic damages, as well as severe emotional and physical harm, humiliation, distress, embarrassment, and anxiety as a result of Robinson’s conduct.”
Lawyers for the accusers will hold a press conference to address the matter on Tuesday afternoon.
The post Legendary Singer Smokey Robinson, 85, Hit With Sexual Battery Lawsuit appeared first on The Daily Beast.
