Entertainment
Trump-Hating Music Legend Hit With New Investigation
As long as President Donald Trump has been in or out of the White House, musicians have clamored to denounce him. But a curious number have since suffered calumny, calamity, or some other misfortune, including a legendary singer now battling rape allegations.
Smokey Robinson, the sultry songwriter whose crooning singles and stable of artists have topped the R&B charts for decades, looked like a shadow of himself after appearing on camera last year to endorse former Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I really don’t understand how any person of color, or any woman, could find it in their hearts to vote for Donald Trump,” he said at the time.
Now, a criminal investigation by Los Angeles officials has been opened, sources confirmed to multiple media outlets. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the probe is in the “early stages”.
The statement comes one week after four women filed a lawsuit against the 85-year-old singer and record producer, accusing him of sexual battery, false imprisonment, negligence, and gender violence while they worked as his housekeepers.
Through his attorney, Robinson claimed the women are after his money and that he will be vindicated in court, “because exposure to the truth is a powerful thing.”
“We feel confident that a determination will be made that Mr Robinson did nothing wrong, and that this is a desperate attempt to prejudice public opinion and make even more of a media circus than the Plaintiffs were previously able to create,” the attorney, Christopher Frost, told the BBC.
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The Sheriff’s Department confirmed that its Special Victims bureau is “actively investigating criminal allegations involving William Robinson AKA ‘Smokey Robinson.’ The investigation is in the early stages, and we have no further comment.”
On May 6, the four women — under the pseudonyms Jane Doe 1, 2, 3, and 4 — alleged that Robinson beat and raped them as far back as 2006. All four, who are Hispanic, said they did not come forward until recently because they feared jeopardizing their livelihoods.
They are seeking $50 million in damages and a jury trial, the outlet adds.
Robinson was one of Motown’s first hitmakers, topping the charts by writing albums for artists like Mary Wells and The Temptations. He was a prolific talent scout for the music industry and a celebrated singer in his own right, standing high on singles like “Tracks of My Tears,” “Shop Around,” and “Tears of a Clown.”
He has been inducted into both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and he is credited on more than 4,000 tracks.
Lawyers for the four women held a press conference last week where they blasted Robinson as a “serial and sick rapist” who “must be stopped.”
“We will have more to say in the coming days as we make our legal response, and in time Mr Robinson will respond in his own words,” Frost said about a pending defense strategy for Robinson and plans to seek dismissal of the suit.
“We ask anyone following this case to reserve judgment as the evidence comes to light and all the actual facts of the case unfold.”
