Motown star Smokey Robinson accused of sexual assault by former housekeepers

Motown star Smokey Robinson is being sued over allegations of sexual assault and battery, as well as workplace negligence, by four women who worked for him as housekeepers at his California home.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday, also included allegations of false imprisonment, gender violence and creating a hostile work environment. It also named his wife, Frances Robinson, as a defendant. The women, who identified themselves as Jane Does to protect their privacy, seek a trial and $50 million in damages.

Smokey Robinson in Melbourne in 2009.Credit: Michael Clayton-Jones

The lawsuit alleges sexual assault incidents and hostile work environment situations that took place from 2007 until April 2024 when the women were employed at Robinson’s home in the Chatsworth neighbourhood of Los Angeles. One woman alleged she was also raped at other Robinson homes, in the Bell Canyon neighbourhood of Los Angeles and in Las Vegas. Among several accusations, the women accused Robinson, 85, of ordering them to his bedroom or other areas of his property, where he would allegedly sexually assault or rape them.

“Defendants’ conduct was outrageous, despicable, and intolerable in a civilised society,” the complaint said.

The lawsuit comes as Robinson, a legendary singer, songwriter, producer and music executive, has been touring to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his album A Quiet Storm.

Representatives for Smokey and Frances Robinson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The unnamed women accused Robinson, also known as William Robinson Jr., of touching their “entire bodies, including their vaginas, breasts, legs, abdomen, lips, and face,” while they did not consent to “sexual contact or touching,” according to the complaint.

According to the lawsuit, three of the women alleged Robinson performed a “ritual” before each encounter in which he summoned or forced them into his bedroom while he was naked or clothed only in his underwear, then laid out a towel on the bed.

“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,” the lawsuit alleges.

One woman alleged Robinson sexually assaulted her seven times during her approximately one-year employment, another at least 20 times during 12 years, and another at least 23 over nearly six years, according to the lawsuit.

The four women also alleged that Frances Robinson did nothing to prevent the alleged assaults by her husband, the lawsuit said.

Frances Robinson “perpetuated a hostile work environment by regularly screaming at them separately in a hostile manner, using ethnically pejorative words and language,” the lawsuit alleges. One woman alleged Robinson threatened to make his wife be “mean” to her if she refused him sex, it said.

The lawsuit said the women worked 10-hour days, with three of them clocking in six days a week for the Robinsons. It alleged they were neither paid overtime nor offered lunch breaks and did not receive holiday pay or wage statements.

One woman said she began working for the Robinsons at a rate above the state-mandated minimum wage at the time, being paid $US10 an hour beginning in 2014, which was then increased to $12 an hour in 2017. But the minimum wage as mandated by LA County was increased to $13.25 an hour in July 2019, meaning she would not have been paid minimum wage for more than half a year until she quit in February 2020.

Smokey Robinson and his wife Frances at a pre-Grammys event in 2023.Credit: AP

All four women resigned to escape the assaults and harassment, the complaint said. The women did not want to report Robinson to law enforcement or authorities because of concerns about reputational harm, and they felt “powerless” to stand up against Robinson’s celebrity status, John Harris, an attorney representing the women, said at a news conference on Tuesday.

Three of the women also feared for their immigration status, the lawsuit said.

“They’re Hispanic women who were employed as housekeepers by the Robinsons,” Harris said. “As low-waged workers in vulnerable positions, they lacked the resources and options necessary to protect themselves from sexual assault throughout their tenure as employees for the Robinsons.”

Attorney Herbert Hayden, who is representing the women, noted that they had not heard from authorities about whether their lawsuit had launched a criminal investigation. He said that filing a police report was something he and his clients needed to discuss. The Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Robinson is one of the most well-known names in R&B and soul music, winning multiple Grammys and being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. His biggest hits include The Miracles’s Ooo Baby Baby, The Tracks of My Tears and I Second That Emotion, and The Temptations’ My Girl, as well as his solo tracks Cruisin’ and Being With You. He’s also a recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

Robinson and his wife, Frances, an interior designer, married in 2002.

Some of the women appeared alongside their attorneys at Tuesday’s news conference, wearing face masks and sunglasses to conceal their identities. An interpreter sat next to them to translate their attorneys’ statements.

While their attorneys did not say what made the women go public, Harris noted that some of their shifts overlapped. “Once they broke their silence, an avalanche of emotions began to flow between them,” he said.

Harris said they are now coming forward to “stand up for their rights, as well as the rights of other women, particularly those that may be victimised by him in the future.”

Washington Post

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