Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee has been accused of sexual assault in a 2003 incident.
A new civil suit filed Friday by an anonymous woman, Jane Doe — and reported by Rolling Stone — accuses Lee of “forcibly groping her, kissing and penetrating her with his fingers, and attempting to force her to perform oral copulation.” The woman had been invited to board a helicopter by pilot David Martz and thought she would be taking a sightseeing tour around San Diego, but was told they would be flying with Lee to Los Angeles.
Lee allegedly invited her into the cockpit where he allegedly assaulted her. “Plaintiff was in tears, but she had nowhere to go – she was stuck with little mobility to leave the cockpit,” the lawsuit states. She alleged Martz and Lee drank alcohol and took drugs on board.
The lawsuit names Mayhem Touring, Tommy Lee Inc, A Natural High Helicopters and Social Helicopters as defendants. None of them have yet commented on these allegations. The woman is seeking damages. She said she had not previously reported the event because she did not think police would treat her case seriously and it was an isolated incident. She now believes Martz and Lee “had a history of indecent and illegal conduct aboard Martz’s helicopter.”
Martz died in 2015 when a plane he was piloting crashed. In 2009, he was arrested on suspicion of stealing under the influence, but a sobriety test was inconclusive. He lost his pilot’s license three times, including after one occasion when he had oral sex with an adult film star while piloting a helicopter.
Lee was also jailed for six months in 1998 for physically assaulting his wife, Pamela Anderson.
Mötley Crüe toured jointly with Def Leppard earlier this year, with Mötley Crüe’s set described as “crude and limp” in a Guardian review.
