Nick Carter is fighting back against accusations of sexual assault.

On Feb. 2, the Backstreet Boys member filed a countersuit against Shannon "Shay" Ruth after she sued him in December for alleged sexual battery. He is also suing Melissa Schuman, a former teen pop singer with the girl group Dream, who accused him of rape in 2017.

In court documents obtained by E! News, Carter's attorney accused both Ruth and Schuman of trying to "harass, defame and extort" his client.

The countersuit alleges the two women took advantage of the #MeToo movement and used it to launch a five-year conspiracy to "defame and vilify Carter and otherwise ruin his reputation for the purposes of garnering attention and fame and/or extorting money from Carter."

The filing also called Schuman and Ruth "opportunists," claiming that they were set out to "destroy innocent lives" and caused more than $2.3 million in business losses.

"Carter will not allow himself to be smeared in this way," his attorney said in court documents. "Protecting one's reputation and name by calling a liar a liar is not victim blaming or bullying. It is simply telling the truth."

In response to the countersuit, Ruth's attorney told Page Six, "Why should Nick Carter be believed with his long history of abusing females? A jury will weigh the evidence and decide."

E! News has reached out to Ruth's attorney and Schuman's team for comment and hasn't heard back.

Back in 2017, Schuman alleged in a since-deleted blog post that Carter raped her when she was 18 years old. Carter denied the allegations at the time, saying, "Melissa never expressed to me while we were together or at any time since that anything we did was not consensual."

After coming forward with her allegations, Schuman was asked on The Dr. Oz Show in December 2017 what she would like to say to Carter.

"That I forgive you," she replied. "That I don't want anything from you. I wish you only the best. I don't want your money. I didn't do this to hurt you or your family. I did this for me, because I needed this healing."

As for Ruth, she alleged in a 2022 lawsuit that Carter assaulted her after she attended a Backstreet Boys concert in 2001. She was 17 at the time.

Carter's attorney denied Ruth's allegations, telling E! News, "This claim about an incident that supposedly took place more than 20 years ago is not only legally meritless but also entirely untrue."

Source:
courtesy of E!ONLINE

by MIKE VULPO

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