In May 2021, Grammy-nominated, multiplatinum country star Jimmie Allen visited “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” to promote his latest project, a children’s book titled, “My Voice Is a Trumpet.” Images flashed across the screen of Allen with his wife and kids, as he spoke about his recent wedding and gushed about his new baby girl.
“When you see things happening that shouldn’t, stand up for it,” Allen said on the talk show as he shared the inspiration behind his book. “It’s so important to teach them at a young age,” he continued. “That way, they grow up to be adults that still have that same confidence to speak up for themselves and speak up for other people.”
As Allen was giving this advice, a woman in her early twenties from his management team was standing backstage. She alleges that while she was employed by the singer’s management company as Allen’s day-to-day manager, Allen raped her and repeatedly subjected her to sexual abuse and harassment over a period of 18 months. In the 24 hours leading up to his “Ellen” appearance, Allen allegedly assaulted this woman as they traveled together, groping her breasts on the plane, pushing his erect penis against her body in public and masturbating in front of her at the hotel where they were both staying, the woman told Variety. Once they left the taping and got into the car, she says he forced his fingers into her vagina while she tried to yank his hand away.
Two months before his “Ellen” appearance, Allen allegedly raped this same woman during a different work trip to Los Angeles, in March 2021, when he was filming an episode of “American Idol” as a celebrity guest, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in Tennessee federal court in which the woman is identified as “Jane Doe.” She claims that following a business dinner after the “Idol” taping, she woke up naked in her hotel room in severe pain and bleeding vaginally, having remembered nothing of what happened the night before. She says Allen was laying next to her in bed, and insisted she take a Plan B pill. She realized she had lost her virginity through no choice of her own and felt she had betrayed her faith.
In a statement to Variety, Allen claims that he had a consensual sexual relationship with his day-to-day manager.
Jane Doe’s attorney pushes back on Allen’s claim that her client ever asked for money, stating, “The only ask we made of Allen and his legal counsel was to meet to discuss Allen’s behavior and resolution of our client’s claims. At no time did our client make a monetary demand. The response was a hard no, and colored with threats that his team would take steps to publicly tarnish my client. My client had no choice but to be proactive in protecting herself by filing the complaint.”
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