Photo: Elyse Jankowski / Getty Images Entertainment / Getty Images
Attorneys for Steven Tyler scored a partial win this week, but the legal fight isn’t over yet.
A Los Angeles judge has dismissed several parts of a sexual abuse lawsuit filed by Tyler’s former partner Julia Holcomb (now known as Julia Misley). However, the core claims tied to incidents in California will still move forward.
Los Angeles County Judge Patricia A. Young ruled that allegations connected to Oregon, Washington, and Massachusetts can’t proceed due to age-of-consent laws and statute-of-limitations rules. Those claims are now permanently dismissed.
But the judge made it clear that the case isn’t slowing down.
“I have clearly signaled how I intend to rule,” she said in court. “I’m not moving the trial.”
Holcomb says she met Tyler in the early 1970s when she was a high school sophomore and he was 25. According to the lawsuit, their relationship began while Aerosmith was on tour, with encounters in Portland and Seattle — both states where the age of consent was 18 at the time.
“I was treated like a sex toy,” Holcomb said in depositions. “It was humiliating.”
She also claims Tyler later became her legal guardian during their three-year relationship and that she was groomed while still a teenager.
Tyler discussed parts of their relationship in his 2011 memoir, Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?, writing that her parents signed paperwork allowing him to take her across state lines.
Holcomb says she became “lost in rock and roll culture” and didn’t fully understand what was happening at the time.
Tyler’s legal team has denied the abuse allegations. They argued that because Holcomb lived with him in Boston — where the age of consent was 16 — the lawsuit should be dismissed entirely.
The judge rejected that argument, ruling that each state’s laws apply based on where the alleged conduct happened.
The strongest remaining claim involves an alleged incident at a Beverly Hills hotel. Judge Young ruled that it qualifies under California’s Child Victims Act, which opened a temporary window in 2019 for survivors to file older cases.
“California has an interest in saying, ‘It’s illegal here,’” the judge said. “Don’t come into our state and do it here.”
A separate lawsuit filed by another woman accusing Tyler of assault as a teenager has already been dismissed.
For now, the California portion of Holcomb’s case will move forward, keeping the long-running legal battle alive.
SOURCE: Loudwire