Melissa Schuman, Nick Carter’s rape accuser, cites a new unknown person in her lawsuit

Former pop singer Melissa Schuman says in a new court filing that the recently released docuseries Fallen idols: Nick and Aaron Carter – in which Schuman describes her alleged rape by Nick Carter in 2003 – prompted another accuser to come forward with claims that the Backstreet Boys singer had also sexually abused her.

“Just last month, Investigation Discovery aired a four-part docuseries interviewing Plaintiff Schuman and other survivors. Afterward, Plaintiff Schuman was contacted by another woman who disclosed that Defendant Carter had also sexually abused her,” says the new filing filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court. When asked to elaborate on the unidentified woman’s claims, Schuman’s attorney Karen Barth Menzies Rolling Stone that the new accuser had provided her identity and enough “specific details” to appear “credible” and warrant mention in court.

“For me, the credibility lies in the fact that she approached Melissa privately, not anonymously. This is not just a nameless, faceless person,” says Barth Menzies. “Nobody is demanding something like this. It’s not a fun conversation. She’s a real person.”

The lawyer says the new accuser, who alleges an assault after 2003, may eventually offer testimony in support of Schuman’s lawsuit. She was mentioned to show the court that accusers “continue to come forward,” the lawyer says. That’s important because Carter is pushing for a stay of Schuman’s lawsuit in California, arguing that she is lying and he should first be allowed to prove the counterclaims for defamation he filed last year in Nevada against her and another accuser named Shannon “Shay” Ruth. (Carter filed the lawsuits in February 2023 as counterclaims to Ruth’s December 2022 lawsuit accusing him of a 2001 sexual assault on a bus. Schuman filed her lawsuit in April 2023 but came forward with her allegations in 2017.)

Carter, 44, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing. In court documents, he claims Schuman and Ruth hatched their alleged conspiracy to falsely accuse him for financial gain. In his latest motion, Carter is asking that the California judge stay Schuman’s lawsuit until he can prove that she and Ruth were involved in a five-year plot to harass, defame and extort him. His lawyers claim in their motion that the facts in both cases are “identical.” In their motion Wednesday, Schuman and her lawyers deny that, pointing out that a victory for Schuman in the defamation trial “cannot and will not grant her the same relief she seeks in her own sexual assault lawsuit.” They also point to the sexual assault lawsuit filed by third accuser Ashley Repp last August. In it, Repp claims that Carter raped her multiple times in Florida when she was 15 and he was 23.

Carter’s lawyers did not immediately respond to Rolling StonePlease leave a comment.

Notably, Schuman’s new filing also includes an excerpt from a June 14 filing in Nevada in which Repp’s lawyers say an unknown person recently testified under oath that Carter raped her twice in 2005. The lawyers have kept Jane Doe’s testimony under seal, saying it was actually given as part of Ruth’s case. Schuman does not know the identity of the new accuser interviewed by Ruth’s lawyers, Barth Menzies said.

In Schuman’s new motion, the former member of the pop group Dream is asking the California judge to reject Carter’s alleged “stalling tactics” because he “uses them to litigate his victims to the point of exhaustion.” She and her attorneys say Carter’s motion would cause a “harmful and unnecessary” delay in her case and should be denied. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for July 10.

“By arguing as if Shannon Ruth and Plaintiff Schuman were the only women in his roster of sexual assault victims, Defendant ignores the many women who have accused him of sexual assault that occurred before and after Plaintiff Schuman’s assault in 2003,” the filing said Wednesday. “Defendants are manipulating the trial process and repeating failed arguments in order to delay litigation of Plaintiff’s separate and independent action, which was duly filed in this Court.”

Schuman, Ruth and Repp all participated in the Fallen Idols documentary series about Carter, which premiered on May 27. Carter’s lawyers responded by sharply criticizing the women’s on-camera interviews.

“These are the very same outrageous claims that led us to sue this band of conspirators. These cases are currently working their way through the legal system, and based on the initial court rulings and the overwhelming evidence, we are confident we will prevail and hold them accountable for spreading these falsehoods,” Carter’s lawyers, Liane Wakayama and Dale Hayes Jr., said in a statement. (In its rulings so far, the Nevada court rejected motions by Schuman and Ruth to dismiss Carter’s defamation suits on the grounds that their allegations were protected by free speech.)

Ruth’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the Repp case, Carter also filed a countersuit for defamation, alleging that Repp consented to sex and told him and others she was 18. (Ruth’s case is now being consolidated with Ruth’s before the same Nevada judge.)

“The court is considering our motion to dismiss Carter’s counterclaims, but sexual abuse of minors is a form of rape,” says Repp’s attorney Margaret Mabie Rolling Stone.

“Even Carter’s own version of events amounts to rape under the law, and at least one new victim has now come forward. Carter’s lawyers have requested that the case file be kept under seal for now, but that may change,” said John Kawai, another lawyer representing Repp.