A new ID and Max docuseries, “Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter” explores the three sexual assault lawsuits filed against Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter, who has repeatedly denied the allegations while filing his own countersuit, with his lawyers slamming the accusers as “outrageous” and a “gang of conspirators.
KEY FACTS
All three women who have sued Carter and accuse him of sexual assault appear in the “Fallen Idols” docuseries (Carter declined to participate in it).
Shannon Ruth filed a lawsuit against Carter in December 2022, alleging the singer chose her out of a line of fans seeking autographs in 2001, brought her to his tour bus and raped her while she was 17 years old, claims Carter’s lawyer called “not only legally meritless but also entirely untrue” at the time.
Singer and former member of the girl group Dream, Melissa Schuman, claims Carter sexually assaulted her in a 2002 incident, and she sued him in 2023, six years after she had publicly accused him in a blog post.
Ashley Repp sued Carter in August 2023, alleging he sexually assaulted her multiple times in 2003 when she was 15 and he was 23, claiming she and Carter had known each other as family friends, and also claiming he gave her alcohol and infected her with HPV.
Carter denies all three women’s allegations.
NEWS PEG
“Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter” aired the first two of four episodes Monday night on ID and Max and will conclude with the final two installments Tuesday night. The first two episodes focused on Schuman and Repp, while Ruth’s claims will be explored in the final episodes. Also in the docuseries is former Pussycat Dolls member Kaya Jones, who says she dated Carter in the 2000s and reportedly discusses Carter’s anger while the two were in a relationship, though she said he was “never physically violent” with her.
Schuman sued Carter under a California law—the Sexual Abuse and Cover Up Accountability Act, which was passed in 2022 and took effect Jan. 1, 2023—which allows some adult survivors of alleged sexual assaults to file lawsuits after the 10-year statute of limitations had expired. Prosecutors in Los Angeles had previously said in 2018, one year after Schuman accused Carter of sexual assault on her blog, that Schuman could not explore charges because the statute of limitations had expired in 2013.
CONTRA
In response to the “Fallen Idol” docuseries, Carter’s lawyer Dale Hayes Jr. slammed the allegations as “outrageous.” The lawsuits are “working their way through the legal system now, and, based on both the initial court rulings and the overwhelming evidence, we have every belief that we will prevail and hold them accountable for spreading these falsehoods,” Hayes told Forbes. Carter has countersued his accusers, first claiming in a February 2023 lawsuit (and again in a January 2024 lawsuit, months after Repp came forward) that the three women and Schuman’s father had engaged in a “five-year conspiracy” to “harass, defame and extort” him. Carter claimed Schuman and her father “groomed and coached” Ruth and Repp to exaggerate and fabricate claims against the singer, alleging they had recruited Ruth on social media and sent tweets attacking Carter and his supporters. Carter’s lawsuit claimed the “campaign was launched and bolstered by the #MeToo movement,” pointing to Schuman’s 2017 blog post, which she wrote shortly after the viral campaign against sexual abuse took off and concluded with the hashtag #MeToo.
Fallen Idols” also explores Aaron Carter’s mental health struggles, his 2022 death by drowning after a drug overdose and his fraught relationship with his brother. Nick Carter previously described their upbringing as “chaotic,” stating their now-divorced parents and grandparents were “big drinkers” and their parents fought frequently. Both Nick and Aaron Carter have struggled with drugs and alcohol, while their sisters Leslie and Bobbie Jean died of drug overdoses, Leslie at age 25 in 2012, and Bobbie Jean, 41, in 2023. Nick and Aaron Carter’s relationship publicly soured after the sexual assault allegations surfaced. Aaron Carter reportedly defended Schuman on Instagram Live in 2019 and slammed his brother in a series of tweets, alleging he was “bullying these women with power and money.” Nick Carter filed a restraining order against his brother in September 2019, citing his “alarming behavior” and claiming his brother had threatened to kill his pregnant wife and unborn child. The docuseries reportedly suggests Aaron Carter’s death was impacted by online harassment he faced following his dispute with his brother.
