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U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said Jeanne Bellino cannot
recover damages from the 76-year-old Tyler under a 2000 New York
City law protecting victims of gender-motivated violence.
He said it would be futile to file an amended complaint, and
dismissed Bellino's case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be
brought again. Kaplan rejected an earlier complaint in February.
Lawyers for Bellino did not immediately respond to requests for
comment.
Tyler had "vehemently" denied Bellino's allegations, which
included that he assaulted her in a phone booth as others in his
entourage stood by laughing, and later assaulted her in a hotel.
The alleged assaults occurred in the summer of 1975, when
Bellino was 17 and Tyler was 27.
Bellino said she encountered Tyler after a friend arranged for
her to meet Aerosmith following a Manhattan fashion show.
Kaplan said the city law was not retroactive, and that Bellino's
battery claim would have expired on her 19th birthday.
He also said two more recent state laws, the Adult Survivors Act
and Child Victims Act, did not revive Bellino's claim.
The judge said the first law covered only people who were at
least 18 when they become victims, and the second did not cover
claims filed after August 2021. Bellino sued in November 2023.
David Long-Daniels, a lawyer for Tyler, in an email said Kaplan
"fastidiously applied the facts to the law. That is all we can
ask from any judge. We are particularly happy for Steven and his
family."
Tyler has also defended against a lawsuit in Los Angeles, where
the plaintiff Julia Misley claimed he sexually assaulted her in
1973 when she was 16 and he was 25.
Bellino's law firm has represented Misley in that case.
Tyler's given name is Steven Tallarico. Bellino's case is
Bellino v Tallarico, U.S. District Court, Southern District of
New York, No. 24-00712.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bill
Berkrot and Diane Craft)
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