Johnny Depp Sued After Security Team Allegedly Pulls a Woman's Pants Down

Woman sues the star and concert venue for assault, battery and negligence, claiming Depp directed his entourage to forcibly drag her out of his vicinity

By Natalie Finn Apr 17, 2012 3:01 AMTags
Johnny DeppBLACK/startraksphoto.com

News flash: Not every woman wants Johnny Depp to tear her clothes off.

In a lawsuit filed today, the Pirates of the Caribbean heartthrob has been accused of directing his security detail to forcibly remove a disabled woman from her VIP seat in Depp's vicinity at an Iggy and the Stooges concert. She claims she was moved so roughly that her clothes were "disheveled" and her shoes came off, and another time so that her pants came down, "exposing her buttocks" to other concertgoers.

The Bully-championing star's camp hasn't yet responded to a request for comment.

The woman, identified solely as Jane Doe in court documents obtained by E! News, claims that, before anyone laid a hand on her, Depp's guards tried to prevent her from returning to her seat and relented only when she explained she had left her cane with her husband and couldn't make the trip upstairs to get back via a different entrance.

She states that she and her party then noticed Depp and his security detail "huddled and speaking to one another" while glancing at her. The complaint alleges that Depp was "supplying direct supervision and management of his security guards and directing their current and future actions."

Actions which, according to the plaintiff, included grabbing her wrists in an attempt to grab her iPhone out of her hand, dragging her to an upper balcony area of the VIP section and prying her phone from her hands "one finger at a time," trying to handcuff her after saying they were off-duty police officers, and then dragging her on the floor through the Hollywood Palladium, causing her pants to fall off her torso and hips.

Jane Doe, a medical professor at UC Irvine, states that she suffered "injuries to the extreme and outrageous humiliation" at the hands of Depp's team—who, she claimed, was entirely aware that she was disabled and aware of what his team was doing.

She says that she went immediately to the emergency room and then to the police station to be examined and have "the facts of the incident documented." The suit does not explicitly state that she filed a criminal complaint.

Depp and the Hollywood Palladium are being sued for unspecified damages for a list of offenses, including negligence, assault, battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and discriminatory practices in public accommodations.