Katy Perry Denies Rumor in Deposition That Dr. Luke Raped Her
Nearly two years after Katy Perry and Lady Gaga were mysteriously dragged into the ongoing legal between Dr. Luke and Kesha, (the "Praying" singer sued Dr. Luke in 2014, claiming he had sexually assaulted her), and two months after Perry and Gaga were officially deposed, news has surfaced that Perry denied that Dr. Luke raped her.
In documents released by The Blast in June, Kesha had accused Luke — in a text message to Lady Gaga — of raping Perry. The site noted: "On February 26, 2016 [Kesha] sent a text message to Stefani Germanotta ...which repeated [Kesha’s] false claim that [Luke] had raped her."
But as of Monday (August 27), when Perry's and other industry professionals' July 21 depositions were made public, Perry officially denied the claims, adding she was "never given a roofie by Luke, never in a sexual or romantic relationship with Luke and never told anyone -- even jokingly -- that Luke raped her," according to Billboard.
Dr. Luke, countered Kesha's initial case by filing a defamation case against the singer, but Kesha refused to take accountability for the story's origin, and said she had heard the information from a reliable source at her label. That person turned out to be Geffen A&M Records chairman and CEO John Janick, whom Gaga cited in her deposition, saying Janick had brought up the "rumor" (she was reticent to use the word).
"He said something like I heard he raped Katy, too," Gaga said.
Gaga later voiced irritation about unintentionally bringing Perry into the legal battle, noting to Kesha in a later series of text messages: "Your legal team and Dr. Luke have taken my private text messages that have been the only conversation about Katy Perry getting raped by Dr. Luke and made it public...This was a private conversation that you and your side and your team have made public. I would have never in a million years, in a million years made the fact that she got raped, if she got raped, public. Ever."
Janick said he only met Perry once, and did not recall whether he had told anyone that she had been raped. He did, however, deny ever making the claim to Kesha or Gaga.
And while Luke has since claimed a number of music industry executives — including Irving Azoff and Kesha's managers Jack Rovner and Ken Levitan — were out to destroy his career, Janick has denied there has ever been such a "campaign" to ruin Dr. Luke.
Emails dating back from as early as six years ago seem to indicate that Rovner, Levitan and others were keeping "the Jihad going," and engineering Dr. Luke's downfall. Luke's team issued a statement Monday claiming "In 2014, Kesha filed a bogus Complaint against Dr. Luke — which she has voluntarily dismissed — falsely claiming that he drugged and raped her in 2005...Now, after four years of litigation, it is Dr. Luke's defamation claim that remains. Evidence is now publicly available to show that Kesha's complaint was filed pursuant to a press plan and PR media blitz, designed to create the maximum negative public pressure on Dr. Luke in order to get him to give in to her contract demands."
Kesha's team has yet to respond to Luke's latest statement.