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Marilyn Manson Will Face a Jury Trial in 2027 Over a Sexual Assault Lawsuit That Got Thrown Out Twice

Updated 1 week ago, August 14, 2026

For years, survivors of adult sexual abuse in California ran up against a hard deadline: wait too long, and the statute of limitations slammed the courthouse door shut, no matter how serious the allegations. AB 250 changed that. And now this is possible.

Black and white photo of Marilyn Manson holding both hands up to frame his face, wearing a sparkly dark jacket, at the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party. — Marilyn Manson frames his face with both hands at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party held at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills on February 9, 2020. Photo by Frazer Harrison / Getty Images.

A former assistant sued Manson in 2021 over alleged assaults from more than a decade earlier. Judges dismissed her case twice on the statute of limitations. The new law revived it, and now it’s going in front of a jury.

Thanks California! The trial is set for November 2027, more than 16 years after the alleged assaults took place in 2010 and 2011.

The lawsuit comes from Ashley Walters, a former employee who accused Manson of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and sexual battery in 2021, along with infliction of emotional distress and violations of multiple California civil codes.

Jim Sturgess, Marilyn Manson, Evan Rachel Wood, and T.V. Carpio seated together at a New York after-party in 2007. — At Bette in New York City on September 13, 2007, Jim Sturgess, Marilyn Manson, Evan Rachel Wood, and T.V. Carpio attended the after-party for a special screening of “Across the Universe.” Photo by Scott Wintrow / Getty Images.

A judge dismissed the case in May 2022, ruling it exceeded the statute of limitations and contained “too few facts.” Walters refiled a revised version in December 2023, and it was dismissed again in December 2025 on the same statute-of-limitations grounds.

In January 2026 she refiled a third time under AB 250, the new California law that temporarily reopens the window for adult sexual abuse survivors to bring cases that would otherwise be time-barred. This June, a judge denied Manson’s motion to dismiss, rejecting his team’s argument that Walters hadn’t shown she was physically restrained during the alleged assault.

Manson’s attorney, Howard King, isn’t conceding. “This was not unexpected. It’s a clear invitation for a summary judgment motion,” he told Rolling Stone, adding that his team is “confident the case will never get to trial.”

Walters’ lawyer, Bina Ahmad, had a different read. “We truly take the inspiration to keep fighting from our client,” she told Rolling Stone. “She’s the brave one.”

Person with pale white face makeup, black eye makeup, dark lipstick, and long black hair staring intensely at the camera. — Marilyn Manson, wearing his signature heavy makeup and mismatched contact lenses, holds a press conference in Moscow on February 23, 2001, during a European tour. Photo by Oleg Nikishin / Hulton Archive via Getty Images.

Walters’ suit is one of several that piled up in 2021 after Evan Rachel Wood publicly accused Manson (legal name Brian Warner) of years of grooming and abuse. Manson has denied the allegations throughout.

The criminal track ended without charges. In January 2025, Los Angeles County DA Nathan Hochman announced no charges would be filed after a multi-year probe by the Sheriff’s Special Victims Bureau and the DA’s Sex Crimes Division into 2009 to 2011 incidents in West Hollywood. Domestic violence claims were time-barred, and prosecutors said they couldn’t prove sexual assault beyond a reasonable doubt.

The other civil cases mostly resolved without a verdict. Game of Thrones actress Esmé Bianco settled her 2021 federal suit in January 2023 on undisclosed terms. Ashley Morgan Smithline’s 2021 suit was dismissed after her attorney withdrew, and in February 2023 she filed a sworn declaration recanting her allegations and saying she’d been pressured into making them. A Jane Doe suit over 2011 claims settled in September 2023, shortly before trial. Bianca Allaine Kyne’s cases over alleged 1990s abuse have moved through courts in New York and Louisiana with portions dismissed or transferred.

Artist Illma Gore posing next to a $100,000 Louis Vuitton-branded toilet at the Tradesy Showroom Opening in Santa Monica — Artist Illma Gore with her $100,000 Louis Vuitton Toilet at the Tradesy Showroom Opening in Santa Monica, CA, November 2017. Photo by Joe Scarnici / Getty Images.

Manson also sued Wood and artist Illma Gore for defamation in 2022. A judge tossed major portions under California’s anti-SLAPP law, Manson dropped the rest in November 2024, and he paid roughly $327,000 toward Wood’s attorneys’ fees.

That leaves Walters as the case still headed to a jury.

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