Judge Declares Motion To Dismiss Garth Brooks’ Mississippi Lawsuit

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A judge in Mississippi has filed a motion to dismiss Garth Brooks’ lawsuit against his former hairdresser. The suit has been deemed moot.

For reference, the “Friends In Low Places” hitmaker filed a lawsuit against his former hairdresser (referred to as Jane Roe). He submitted it to the Southern District of Mississippi’s U.S. District Court back in September of last year. The lawsuit would have protected the woman in question from going public with allegations that Brooks had assaulted her years prior.

The woman filed a complaint in California’s state court and detailed the accusations against Brooks. She alleges that Brooks assaulted her after she came to his home to style his hair and do his makeup. She also alleges that Brooks flew her to Los Angeles for a Grammy-related event. There, he allegedly assaulted her in a hotel room. By November, her case had moved to the Central District of California’s U.S. District Court.

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The woman in question filed to dismiss Brooks’ countersuit in Mississippi back in November. As of May 1 of this year, one Judge Henry Wingate deemed the motion to be moot. For those not super well-versed in law, a judge can find a motion to be moot if the motion is no longer relevant. Essentially, this means that Brooks’ suit might be over.

As of this writing, it isn’t clear how the decision made for the Mississippi case will affect the case in California. In December, Brooks was ordered to inform the court of any ruling involving the Mississippi case within 10 days of the ruling taking place. As of yesterday, no filings indicate that the California court has been notified.

After the woman’s claims made it to the public, Brooks filed his own suit in 2024 to prevent her from going public with potentially damaging allegations. He asserted that the allegations were false and an attempt to blackmail him for millions of dollars. The hairdresser, though, argued that Brooks’ filing of his complaint was an attempt to silence her.

“Roe unquestionably agrees that the two cases are logically intertwined,” Brooks’ attorney stated. “Her California complaint spends paragraphs discussing the Mississippi Action and its connection with the California Action. The parties should not be required to conduct overlapping discovery here and in the Mississippi Action simultaneously. And this Court should not be thrust into a race with the Southern District of Mississippi to decide the critical factual issues that are dispositive of both actions.”

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