Editor’s Note: This story contains discussions of rape or sexual assault that may be disturbing. Reader discretion is advised. If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can find help and discreet resources on the National Sexual Assault Hotline website or by calling 1-800-656-4673.
Smokey Robinson has been accused of misconduct by four of his former employees.
Four women who worked with the singer submitted a complaint to the Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday. The accusations include sexual battery, assault, false imprisonment, gender violence and creating a hostile work environment.
The 85-year-old’s wife, Frances Robinson, is also named in the lawsuit.
All of the plaintiffs are adult females who have chosen the Jane Doe pseudonyms to “protect their privacy because it involves sexual misconduct by Defendant Smokey Robinson,” court documents say.
Each woman was employed as a housekeeper at the Motown legend’s Chatsworth home, with incidents ranging from 2007 up until April 2024.
They each accuse him of forcefully touching their “entire bodies, including their vaginas, breasts, legs, abdomen, lips, and face” and clam that they did not consent to Robinson’s “sexual contact or touching.”
“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 complaint explained.
Each woman claimed that Robinson’s wife did nothing to prevent these acts from happening, despite “having full knowledge of his prior acts of sexual misconduct, having settled cases with other women that suffered and experienced similar sexual assaults perpetuated by him.”
They also claim his wife “perpetuated a hostile work environment by regularly
screaming at them separately in a hostile manner, using ethnically pejorative words and language.”
The women say the couple didn’t pay them minimum wage or overtime if they worked over eight hours. They also say they weren’t given rest or lunch breaks and worked holidays without being paid a holiday rate.
One woman, identified as Jane Doe 4, said she often traveled with the couple and was never paid for her time doing so.
Each plaintiff claimed the defendants failed to provide them with wage statements for the hours worked.
Court documents say that each woman didn’t want to report Robinson to the police due to their fears of losing their livelihoods, “familial reprisal, public embarrassment, shame and humiliation” to themselves and their families, “the possible adverse effect on her immigration status, as well as being threatened and intimidated by Robinson’s well-recognized celebrity status and his influential friends and associates.”
The women are suing Robinson for $50 million.
They claim they “suffered and continue to suffer economic damages, as well as severe emotional and physical harm, humiliation, distress, embarrassment, and anxiety as a result of Robinson’s conduct.”
Lawyers for the plaintiffs will provide more information during a press conference Tuesday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles.
KTLA 5 has reached out to Robinson’s representatives for a statement and is awaiting a response.
This is a developing story, check back for updates.