Rape Allegations Against Jimmie Allen Should Be Taken Seriously
This story has been updated.
As most of the country music industry was preparing for Thursday evening’s (5-11) ACM Awards in Dallas, journalist Elizabeth Wagmeister at Variety published a bombshell report that pop country artist and Broken Bow Records signee Jimmie Allen has been accused of rape, sexual assault, and other charges by his former day-to-day manager of 18 months. The manager has chosen to remain anonymous at this time, and is being referred to as “Jane Doe.”
In a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court of Tennessee and verified by Saving Country Music, Attorney Elizabeth Fagan of the Chicago Law Firm FeganScott is suing Jimmie Allen for sexual battery, assault, false imprisonment, sex trafficking and emotional distress. Allen’s former management firm Wide Open Music is also being sued for gross negligence, participating in a venture engaged in sex trafficking, and other counts.
The lawsuit chronicles scores of incidents where Jimmie Allen allegedly raped and sexually assaulted Jane Doe, including during trips to prominent appearances on Ellen, American Idol, and other events, including one incident after an American Idol taping where Jane Doe says she woke up naked in a hotel room in severe pain, bleeding vaginally, and not being able to recall anything from the previous evening. Jimmie Allen was beside her in bed, and insisting she take a morning after pill. Jane Doe says this is how she lost her virginity.
Another alleged incident happened when Jane Doe when to Jimmie Allen’s house to drop off a COVID test. “I’m walking into his driveway to drop off a test, and he shuts the garage door,” she says. “He takes my arms, he’s like, ‘Come on, come on, just really quick,’ and he’s grabbing my hips, turning me around. He pulls his pants down. I said ‘No.’ He kept grabbing me and turning me around.”
Variety was given access to scores of text messages, tour itineraries, and other corroborating evidence to help verify the allegations against Allen, as well as speaking to two other people close to Jane Doe who could help corroborate the abuse. Jane Doe also alleges that Jimmie Allen took photos and video of her to use as blackmail, and watched porn on her computer, while Allen did not allow her to have a phone while they were together.
Jimmie Allen was married with two kids at the time of the alleged rapes and sexual assaults. Though he denies the allegations, he does admit that the two had a consensual sexual relationship for a prolonged period. It was announced publicly in April that Allen would be separating from his wife Gail, and that the couple were expecting their third child.
Jimmie Allen’s statement reads:
It is deeply troubling and hurtful that someone I counted as one of my closest friends, colleagues and confidants would make allegations that have no truth to them whatsoever,” Allen says. “I acknowledge that we had a sexual relationship — one that lasted for nearly two years. During that time, she never once accused me of any wrongdoing, and she spoke of our relationship and friendship as being something she wanted to continue indefinitely. Only after things ended between us, did she hire a lawyer to reach out and ask for money, which leads me to question her motives. The simple fact is, her accusations are not only false, but also extremely damaging. I’ve worked incredibly hard to build my career, and I intend to mount a vigorous defense to her claims and take all other legal action necessary to protect my reputation.
The attorney for Jane Doe rebuts, “The only ask we made of Allen and his legal counsel was to meet to discuss Allen’s behavior and resolution of our client’s claims. At no time did our client make a monetary demand. The response was a hard no, and colored with threats that his team would take steps to publicly tarnish my client. My client had no choice but to be proactive in protecting herself by filing the complaint.”
Wide Open Music is accused of knowing about the abuse, but doing nothing about it as the alleged behavior continued.
“Wide Open Music knew that Jimmie Allen regularly engaged in sexual harassment but required Plaintiff to work with him anyway,” the suit says. “Wide Open Music knew that Allen was dangerous, and assigned Plaintiff to be his Day-to-Day Manager anyway. Wide Open Music did not adequately warn or prepare Plaintiff for, or protect her from, the extreme sexual harassment, abuse, grooming, and manipulation she would endure in order to keep her job.”
Wide Open Music claims they were unaware of the allegations until a meeting on October 4th, 2022, when Jane Doe disclosed the abuse. Shortly after the meeting, Wide Open Music ended their management partnership with Jimmie Allen. Jane Doe’s employment also ended at that time, since her job was to work with Jimmie Allen.
Also according to the lawsuit, the previous day-to-day manager for Jimmie Allen had also been fired after she defended another woman who was allegedly the target of Jimmie Allen’s sexual advances.
Jimmie Allen has been a high-profile artists in country music since 2018, including hosting the 2022 ACM Awards with Dolly Parton, performing on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, collaborating with artists such as Noah Cyrus and Brad Paisley, becoming the first Black artists to win the ACM’s New Male Artist of the Year award in 2021, and winning the prestigious New Artist of the Year at the 2021 CMA Awards as well.
Jimmie Allen’s debut single “Best Shot” hit #1, becoming only the 2nd debut single from a Black artist to hit #1. Since then, he’s hit #1 with “Make Me Want To” (2019), “Freedom Was a Highway” with Brad Paisley (2021), and hit #2 with “Down Home” (2022).
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Though everyone is innocent until proven guilty, the accusations against Jimmie Allen must be taken seriously by the country music industry, especially since they involve another professional within the industry as the alleged victim. Though it might be assumed the country music industry would approach these allegations with weight and seriousness they deserve, country music has a dubious past of looking the other way when it comes to such accusations against certain artists.
When Nelly was accused of raping a woman while on tour with Florida Georgia Line in October of 2018, he was able to resume touring with the duo immediately. Even after two more women came forward with allegations of sexual assault, Nelly is still regularly booked for appearances on country tours and events. High-profile DJ Diplo has also been accused of rape, grooming of underage girls, and other accusations, and continues to make high-profile appearances at country music festivals, and just released a collaborative album with country artists. Publicist and manager Kirt Webster also continues to work in the country industry, even after credible accusations of rape against him by an artist and other sexually inappropriate behavior.
Jimmie Allen has a right to face the charges and to present his side of the story and clear his name. But he also can’t be shielded from these accusations because of who he is. The Metro Nashville Police should also get involved to find if any criminal charges are warranted before the statute of limitations is allowed to expire.
UPDATE: Thursday afternoon (5-11), it was announced that CMAFest had removed Jimmie Allen from the lineup, and that his label BBR had “suspended” Allen after the allegations.
May 11, 2023 @ 2:54 pm
I can’t even finish reading this. Seems like we have a pattern endemic to this industry, here in Nashville.
May 11, 2023 @ 3:58 pm
The comments are disturbingly specific, especially the visit to er that was confirmed Speechless
May 11, 2023 @ 8:01 pm
The journalist Elizabeth Wagmeister did a great job with this one, taking her time, getting all the information together, running down the leads, and putting bulletproof details together that should give anyone that reads them pause. Jimmie Allen is still innocent until proven guilty. But this does not look good.
May 11, 2023 @ 4:14 pm
Awful if true, on so many levels. He gave off such a “good guy” vibe, but you never know. The racists must be all over this news.
May 11, 2023 @ 4:20 pm
“The racists must be all over this news.”
That is certainly the most important concern related to this story. No doubt.
May 11, 2023 @ 9:04 pm
Well, it is an important concern those evil people genuinely make me sick and now whey have a weapon , I’m getting carpal tunnel blocking them all.
May 12, 2023 @ 5:18 am
You’re doing important work.
May 12, 2023 @ 8:07 am
Yo Trig,
I left a comment just to lambast pearl-clutching, dramatic Karens.
Did you for some reason deem it political in relation to the other clearly political comments that have been made on this article?
May 12, 2023 @ 8:22 am
Multiple overtly political comments and other insensitive comments have been deleted from this comments section from varying political perspectives due to the sensitivity and importance of this topic. I did not find Dee Manning’s comment “clearly political.” I understand you may disagree. Further comments on the comments will also be deleted.
May 12, 2023 @ 9:48 am
Ten-4 Trig.
Yeah, I mean, ya know, hollering Racism!™️ at everything, without evidence, and particularly when it wasn’t part of the article, strikes me as overtly political, yes.
May 12, 2023 @ 12:29 pm
That’s right.,commenting on comments will NOT be tolerated in an online forum!
May 13, 2023 @ 9:43 pm
You deserve the Medal of Honor.
Those prior recipients were pikers compared to your sacrifice.
May 14, 2023 @ 12:44 am
You know how to stop a guy like him from rapining a gorl like her, right?
May 12, 2023 @ 3:23 pm
I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic or not (I have trouble with that.), but if you are, let me clarify what I meant. I was referring to the possible negative impact of this on the potential for other black men to get a foothold in country music, especially those who produce something other than generic pop-country and snap tracks. There’s long been a highly sexualized stereotype of African American males, and that’s what I was anticipating being invoked by the racist minority. Of course, the presence of this sort of — again, only alleged so far — behavior toward women by country performers of any race is of paramount importance. I was just trying (clumsily, it turns out) to speculate on its impact on other black performers, especially those still trying to break through in Nashville.
May 11, 2023 @ 4:45 pm
….”The racists must be all over this news.”….
Who knows? But I know who won’t be all over it: the Communists in the media. They must not report anything that paints a malcontent in a negative light.
Now, if Jimmy gets caught with a red ball-cap on, or if a recording emerges of him criticizing Woke ideology, this rape story will become major news.
May 11, 2023 @ 8:04 pm
The reason I wrote this story the way I did was concern that this story would be swept under the rug. That’s not what’s happening at all. The way Variety’s Elizabeth Wagmeister laid the story out, you can’t ignore it. It has been all over the place, and Jimmie’s label, events, the CMA, they’re all taking immediate action. Give the press credit on this one, especially country press, which was tied in knots covering the ACM Awards, and still made sure to cover it.
May 20, 2023 @ 1:20 pm
Someone commented on a trip to the ER, which I didn’t see in the article. However, as an independent, confident woman I need to comment that if I woke up bleeding, with no memory of what happened and a man in bed with me it would have made the news THAT DAY. I don’t understand these women who wait a year to speak up. Sure makes it seem hard to believe.
May 20, 2023 @ 1:25 pm
“as an independent, confident woman I need to comment that if I woke up bleeding, with no memory of what happened and a man in bed with me it would have made the news THAT DAY.”
Exactly. But if you are a shy young woman who lacks confidence, wants to keep her job, and fears that if she reports on something it will mean losing her career in the music business where she has always dreamed of working, someone may use your lack of confidence to control and silence you. Often this is the case, and in the music business specifically. It is the rule, not the exception.
May 20, 2023 @ 1:51 pm
@Trigger – there was no way to reply to your response but please tell me who, in their right mind, dreams of working in an industry where rape is the norm? Your words, interpretively.
May 20, 2023 @ 3:10 pm
I wouldn’t say that “rape is the norm” in music, or country music specifically. And obviously, that is not why they dream of working in music. They dream of working in music because they love music, they want to meet the stars, it’s glamorous and exciting, and certain people prey on these people and take advantage of them.
I do not know if that happened in this case, but it has happened in many, many others. That is why it should not be considered unusual that this young lady was raped, and remained working with her abuser, especially if he kept blackmail on her as she claims.
May 11, 2023 @ 6:20 pm
It will be interesting to see what the truth is. Especially after it turns out the allegations against the Punt God were proven incorrect. Unfortunately, his career was already sunk by then.
May 11, 2023 @ 6:48 pm
What? There were “scores” of incidents? Why did “Jane Doe” continue to be around the guy after the first “incident”? And why is this a civil lawsuit, instead of a criminal charge? This is way fishy. It sounds to me like she was enjoying consensual sex until maybe Jimmie turned his attention to some other woman.
I do want to see rapists get punished, but Jane Doe’s story is not credible.
May 11, 2023 @ 8:08 pm
Over and over again when reporting on these kinds of incidents, artists like Jimmie Allen use their positions of power over young—and in this case–innocent young women. They want to work in country music, and they don’t want to speak out because it will mean their career. This is exactly what happened with Kirt Webster, and it’s still happening.
That said, Jimmie Allen should be considered innocent until proven guilty. I also agree that Metro Nashville Police should look into these allegations beyond the civil matter. It just happens to be that civil action is usually more effective in these cases.
May 11, 2023 @ 7:51 pm
And to think this was the man defending morgan wallen
May 11, 2023 @ 8:26 pm
Awful if the allegations are true. I also don’t like that the accusations were made years later because it’s also possible that the woman is retroactively withdrawing consent of lying for monetary gain. Ultimately I want to see the evidence. I want justice to prevail. Also if Jimmie is innocent of the charges or most aggregious ones, I hope his career isn’t ruined because we all know that false accusations rarely hurt the liars like they hurt the person falsely accused.
May 11, 2023 @ 8:31 pm
Even if this was consensual in every way (which I highly doubt), the guy is scum. Who divorces his pregnant wife with their third child? Who has a two year affair while raising a young family? And to think that Nashville kept propping-up this piece of garbage alongside Charley Pride in his final years.
May 11, 2023 @ 8:41 pm
Jason Aldean
Vince Gill
(To different degrees)
May 11, 2023 @ 9:05 pm
Vince?? The man is a saint.
Why include him in this??
May 11, 2023 @ 9:51 pm
I love his music too, but he stole Amy Grant. It’s not uncommon that stars “upgrade” their spouses.
May 11, 2023 @ 11:51 pm
How did he steal her?
I know Vince was married to someone else – but im sure he divorced wife #1 & then dated Amy. Which is the respectful way to do it. Vince never cheated on his old wife
May 12, 2023 @ 2:45 pm
There was overlap. They met prior to their divorces. And I’ve heard the same thing of family friends of Gary Chapman
May 13, 2023 @ 2:21 pm
Yes, I’m interested in how this plays out. Hopefully it will answer the questions honestly and accurately. It’s just sad and disappointing all around.
May 12, 2023 @ 7:08 am
Who knows what arrangement he and his wife had. Tom Jones’ wife accepted decades of his infidelity as long as at the end of a tour he came home, which he always did.
May 11, 2023 @ 10:55 pm
Time will tell, but this one doesn’t pass the sniff test to me. Innocent until proven guilty let’s not forget.
May 11, 2023 @ 11:44 pm
Geez this is terrible. Always a reader and long time commenter. I love this this site so much. I actually love both sides of country music and have debated Trig for years. Man this goes beyond taste in music. Hope this isn’t true. Not good at all
May 12, 2023 @ 12:17 am
Many years ago I read that Billy Graham, at the time a young, handsome, and charismatic preacher, had a policy of never being alone in a room with any woman, other than his wife. If a female parishioner visited his office, he kept the door open and his secretary close at hand. Now that the “Me Too” hysteria has reached a fever pitch, it is probably advisable for all men, rich, poor, famous or not, to adopt this policy.
May 12, 2023 @ 5:50 am
Pence had the same policy and got roasted for it by the press.
It is a wise one. Especially in the era of #BelieveAllWomen.
Talk about an intellectually dead thought process. Believe someone merely because of their gender!
May 12, 2023 @ 7:01 am
I would say its advisable for all men to adopt the policy of not sexually assaulting or harassing women…
May 12, 2023 @ 8:56 am
And always remember, if the guy looks like George Clooney, its flirting, but if he looks like George Conway, its assault.
May 20, 2023 @ 1:59 pm
Too funny
May 14, 2023 @ 12:53 am
Salacious behavior and home wrecking goes both ways 😒🤬🤮….
May 12, 2023 @ 7:49 am
As we see in this very country music industry, men can, and are, victimized in this very same way.Sometimes subtle, sometimes not so much. Trigger has covered these stories in detail, as well.
May 12, 2023 @ 8:44 am
Why now? I have been sexually harrassed by an employer, not raped; however have been raped by an acquaintance that I didn’t report back in the early 80’s. All I wanted was for the person who did this to me to go away and I for certain wouldn’t have hung around for 2 years or more in this day and age, NO MATTER WHAT. My feeling is his wife found out about the affair and ultimate cause of their breakup. Ill admit if I am wrong, but feel like she didn’t get what she wanted and is now going after him for money…as they say that is the only way to “get any satisfaction”. If it is true, there are others…rape is not about sex, it is about control, entitlement. He cheated, obviously, and good for his wife for leaving; however, I am more likely to believe it was a mutual relationship gone bad.
May 12, 2023 @ 9:30 am
“The attorney for Jane Doe rebuts, “The only ask we made of Allen and his legal counsel was to meet to discuss Allen’s behavior and resolution of our client’s claims. At no time did our client make a monetary demand.”
They’re not after money 😜
The allegations are pretty damning but yeah who knows.
May 12, 2023 @ 12:09 pm
What do you think the resolution would be? Hopefully you’re not naive enough to think it’s a verbal apology. Just because the victim or her attorney hadn’t asked for money yet, you know that’s going to be a part of the discussion. I’m not saying these accusations were made up for money, but that was just some clever language by the lawyer.
May 12, 2023 @ 12:45 pm
Duh
May 12, 2023 @ 12:51 pm
Definitely a ‘duh’ moment on my part. I guess 3 consecutive nights of less than 5 hrs of sleep has slowed down my comprehension. Or I need to pay better attention to dumb emojis.
May 12, 2023 @ 12:54 pm
All good 👍
May 13, 2023 @ 5:27 pm
I agree with this commentary. At least there’s a lot of good dialogue going on about this. Keep up the good work.
May 12, 2023 @ 9:24 am
“Rape Allegations Against Jimmie Allen Should Be Taken Seriously”
Yes, they should be taken seriously. The accuser should be interviewed by a police department investigator and prosecutors and Jimmie Allen should be brought up on criminal charges and indicted if there’s probable cause.
A lawsuit does not determine someone’s guilt of felony crimes.
Trump was just found liable for a highly unlikely sexual assault in a lawsuit in New York. (To be fair, he brought it on himself with the ” grab ’em by the pu**y” video on Access Hollywood and with his bizarre decision to blow off the civil trial and not even say “Hello” to the jury, but, nonetheless, that’s not going to stop him from being a presidential nominee next year.)
May 12, 2023 @ 10:09 am
The allegations fo seem to have supporting evidence. The journalist has done her job well. If rape, sad that Jane Doe has not gone to the Police and that he be prosecuted. Innocent until proved guilty but there does appear to be a case for him to answer…..much more so that the allegation against Donald Trump which seemed rather thin in comparison. .
May 12, 2023 @ 10:31 am
please tell me i’m misinformed here, cause i really wanna know. when this shit came down, the ACMs replaced an accused rapist (jimmie allen) with another accused rapist (nelly) for a performance? please tell me i’m wrong. what the hell is going on in country music?
May 12, 2023 @ 10:34 am
That did not happen. That was an ironic joke I made during the ACM Awards Live blog. That said, Nelly has appeared at many country music events after he was accused of raping a woman on a country tour.
May 12, 2023 @ 10:37 am
sorry trigger. didn’t see the blog, just read it. thanks for clearing that up for me. also, i only recently found this site, and i fucking love it. rock on, my brother!!
May 12, 2023 @ 10:44 am
Glad you found the site murf, thanks for reading.
May 12, 2023 @ 10:16 pm
Here is my question: why did this “Jane Doe” not file criminal charges? The statute of limitations has not, I believe, run out. She also kept proof in real time with text messages, which is more than a lot of long-after-the-fact rape cases The #MeToo detractors will say it is all about money. If she wants to be taken seriously, she should file charges against him. She may well do that in the coming weeks.
I am disturbed, as some have noted in the comments, that there has not been a swifter fall from grace. A white guy with a mullet said a word in jest and very nearly lost everything. Splashed across every major news outlet as a massive headline.
Jimmie Allen’s situation has not been reported as widely, and action is not happening as swiftly. Only his label and CMA Fest have suspended him. I fear it is a racial-optics thing, and that “Jane Doe” will be criticized for accusing a black person. It’s not right. It should be a level playing field.
May 12, 2023 @ 11:20 pm
Jimmie Allen’s booking agent and management company also dropped him today. I actually think the action against him has been as swift as Morgan Wallen. You’re right, it hasn’t been reported as widely, but I have seen a lot of entertainment press covering it. Yes, Morgan Wallen was much more of an uproar, but that’s because some in the media always wanted to exploit that story to gain power over country music, and they continue to try. That is why they will not let it go. But Morgan Wallen was also a massive, massive star at that time. Jimmie Allen is solidly a 2nd-tier or 3rd tier country act with some #1 songs.
I agree that the police should investigate these accusations.
May 13, 2023 @ 9:37 pm
Interestingly, Allen seems to still be getting airplay. Friday night, I picked out five country stations at random on OnlineRadioBox and took a look at their playlists for that day. Four of them showed songs by Allen — mostly his big winter hit “Down Home,” which only went recurrent a month or so back, but also “Make Me Want To” and “Freedom Was a Highway.” No spins for the new single his label has stopped supporting, but most stations weren’t playing it yet anyway. Not sure about SiriusXM. I haven’t listened to The Highway much the past few days and there’s no website monitoring its playlists. Nothing going on on the Highway Facebook page either. After SXM stopped playing Wallen, the fans started complaining almost immediately.
Also, Spotify still has everything in the Allen catalog up and available to stream, including the new song “Be Alright.”
This is a very different reaction in country music media than what we saw with Wallen, Trig.
May 13, 2023 @ 9:56 pm
Spotify never pulled any of Morgan Wallen’s tracks. You can still stream all of R. Kelly’s music on Spotify. This thing just happened, and while the entire country music industry was out of pocket in Dallas for the ACM Awards. Morgan Wallen was never fully yanked on country radio either. Programmers may have just not gotten to their recurrent catalogs yet to take Jimmie Allen out.
Every single organization associated with Jimmie Allen has dropped or suspended him: management, label, booking, PR. The only difference between this and Morgan Wallen is that if Jimmie Allen can’t answer for these charges ultimately, all of this stuff will be permanent. He’s done.
Again, I wrote this article worried that Allen would get a slap on the wrist. That is NOT what has happened.
We’re still very, very early in this thing to. We’re not at a point where even can make an assessment re Jimmie Allen vs. Morgan Wallen. Let’s at least wait until Monday.
May 13, 2023 @ 10:48 pm
Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification. I wasn’t using Spotify during the Wallen quasi-cancellation, so didn’t know that Spotify had been streaming him right through it. I just remembered his music disappearing from local radio for a few months and from SiriusXM for a couple of months longer.
By the way, I just listened to his most recent album all the way through for the first time and can honestly say I won’t miss hearing any of those tracks on the radio at all, ever. It is atrocious. The only song I can even tolerate is “Down Home,” the rest of them are the worst of hick-hop, snap-track, boyfriend country and whatever other pop-country aural blight you can name. His voice is better suited to country than Breland’s but he sure doesn’t seem interested in setting his bar higher.
May 13, 2023 @ 12:32 pm
Misconception here, “she” is not responsible or liable for filing charges.
What she can do is present her evidence to the police/DA, but it is ultimately up to the DA to file charges. She has no say in this.
Not saying this is strictly a DV case, but the inverse happens often in DV cases. Abused woman calls the police, police arrest man, days later the abused woman recants. DA still filed charges anyway. That scenario runs the risk of an uncooperative witness; pretty hard to convince a jury a woman was abused if she’s unwilling to take the stand.
The lack of comment from the police/DA is not indicative of lack of guilt: not commenting is standard policy as to not interfere with the investigation.
For a person of Allen’s magnitude, everything has to be done with the utmost scrutiny because he can afford the lawyer who finds where the T was not crossed, the I was not dotted, any sort of technicality that may be found to throw out the case.
May 13, 2023 @ 4:57 pm
There are many reasons women don’t report rape when it happens. The last thing you want is to talk about and relive it. “What were you wearing?” “Had you been drinking?” “Were you giving him mixed signals?” “You shouldn’t have been at that party.” Or my personal favorite, “no one will believe you because he is a cop and you were drinking.” The process can be scary, confusing and humiliating. Bottom line you just want it to go away. But guess what? It doesn’t. So maybe years later when the trauma continues to effect every area of your life you decide to take control of the nightmare and fight back. So while I don’t know her reason, or his guilt or innocence, I hope we have some compassion and not just assume due to the lapse in time that she must be lying.
May 16, 2023 @ 9:11 pm
Thank you for this.
May 17, 2023 @ 11:35 am
True point at the end.
We also don’t have to assume that she is telling the truth.
May 13, 2023 @ 5:28 pm
I agree with this commentary. At least there’s a lot of good dialogue going on about this. Keep up the good work.
May 15, 2023 @ 6:04 am
until he’s proven guilty of these allegations, his biggest crime to me, is still the fact that he calls himself a country music artist. I have a feeling that won’t be his biggest crime very soon tho.
June 4, 2023 @ 9:03 am
I too was raped at my previous job by my employer. I stayed employed under them for 2 years while he continously raped me. I woke up bleeding, went to his house unaccompanied, stayed in hotels with him, but he kept raping and I kept on working. For 2 years. Work then rape, work then rape, work then rape. Not 1 single raise.