Veteran record producer Smokey Robinson has reportedly been accused of sexual assault by four former employees.
The allegations against the 85-year-old include sexual battery, assault, false imprisonment, gender violence, and creating a hostile work environment.
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Sources say the case was reported at Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, May 6, with his wife, Frances Robinson, also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Reports indicate that Robinson has not responded to the suit, and no police reports or criminal charges have been filed against him.
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All four plaintiffs were said to have previously worked as housekeepers for Robinson and his wife. The said hostilities were said to have occurred between 2007 to April 2024. The women are requesting $ 50 million in damages.
“Plaintiffs explicitly told Defendant Robinson on numerous occasions that they were not interested in his advances and objected to his forceful, physical, sexual, and harmful conduct,” a part of the complaint read.
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Robinson’s wife was named in the suit because the accusers say she did nothing to prevent her husband’s alleged behaviour.
According to the suit, Frances “perpetuated a hostile work environment by regularly screaming at them separately in a hostile manner, using ethnically pejorative words and language”.
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Apart from being denied rest and lunch breaks, the women added that the married couple failed to pay them minimum wage or overtime if they worked more than eight hours.
Records indicate that women delayed the filing of the suit because they were concerned about losing their livelihoods, “familial reprisal, public embarrassment, shame, and humiliation.”
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They also cited “the possible adverse effect on her immigration status, as well as being threatened and intimidated by Robinson’s well-recognised celebrity status and his influential friends and associates,”
They’re Hispanic women who were employed by the Robinsons, earning below minimum wage. As low-wage women in vulnerable positions, they lacked the resources and options necessary to protect themselves from sexual assaults,” a representative for the plaintiffs was quoted.
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Smokey Robinson is expected to make an appearance at the Love Supreme Festival and perform headline concerts in Glasgow, Birmingham, Cardiff, and London, later this year.
