NEW YORK, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Conor Oberst has filed a $1 million libel lawsuit in a New York federal court after his publicist called rape accusations against the Bright Eyes frontman "absolutely, unequivocally false."
Oberst's accuser left comments on an XOJane article published last December, claiming that Oberst had raped her 10 years ago when she was 16.
"Conor definitely took advantage of my teenage crush on him," she wrote, noting that she met Oberst after a show because her English teacher was Oberst's brother. "At first, I was flattered when he was playing with my hair and had his hand on my leg. It was like my dream come true at that point. But then he clearly wanted to go further and I made it very clear and told him I was a virgin and wasn’t prepared to change that right then but he didn’t stop."
Oberst's lawyers called on the women to recant the story, but decided to press charges when she refused.
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In a statement, Oberst's representation claims that he never had any physical contact with his accuser and that she wrote positive comments about him online in the years since the alleged attack.
Although her false statements about Oberst have since been deleted from the locations where they were initially posted online, Oberst's suit alleges that her malicious lies spread across the Internet and are archived by multiple blogs.
The statement also pledges to donate all potential proceeds of the suit to organizations that benefit victims of violence against women.
[Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, TMZ]
