Nick Carter Countersues Dream Singer Melissa Schuman for $2.5 Million

Nick Carter has officially filed a countersuit against his sexual assault accuser, Dream singer Melissa Schuman, asking for $2.5 million in damages.

The complaint, filed in the Superior Court of California on July 26 and obtained by Billboard, denies her claims and alleges that Schuman “publicly acknowledges her dwindling career and thirst for internet relevance,” referring to a 2014 YouTube video of hers titled “I need to Become Important On the Internet.” He also claimed that Schuman and her father recruited other parties to defame him.

In August 2023, a judge denied an attempt to dismiss the countersuit, determining that Carter presented sufficient evidence for his defamation case to move forward. In a complaint filed a few months earlier, Schuman accused the pop singer of sexually assaulting her in 2003 when she was just 18 years old, while the two were starring in the teen horror movie The Hollow. Schuman alleged that Carter gave her drug-laced alcohol during a party, before taking her away from the group and repeatedly assaulting her despite clear statements that she did not consent.

Carter was hit with a similar lawsuit from Shannon “Shay” Ruth, a woman who says he raped her on a tour bus when she was 17 years old in 2001. Ruth had asked the judge to dismiss his defamation countersuit under Nevada’s so-called anti-SLAPP law — a statute designed to prevent lawsuits that are filed as retaliation against free speech. However, in March, a Nevada judge ruled that Carter could continue to sue both Ruth and Schuman for defamation over their accusations. Carter’s lawsuit claims the accusations are a “conspiracy” to “to harass, defame and extort” him. 

The rules come following a third sexual assault accusation towards Carter. In a complaint filed on August 28 in Las Vegas court, a Jane Doe accuser identified as “A.R.” claims that Carter sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions in 2003, when he was in his early 20s and she was just 15 years old, including several times on a yacht and once on a tour bus. The disturbing incident allegedly left her with sexually-transmitted diseases and other lasting effects.