Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter is facing a new lawsuit alleging he sexually assaulted a woman on two occasions while they were involved in a relationship in 2005.
The civil complaint, filed last week in Nevada, alleges the abuse took place when the woman, Laura Penly, would travel from Oregon to visit Carter in Los Angeles while she was 19 and he was 25. Penly says she had consensual sex with Carter about three separate times, but then on one visit, after she stated she only wanted to watch a movie, Carter refused to take no for an answer. She claims Carter “dismissed” her refusal and told her that “the only reason she was there was to have sex.”
“Carter then picked plaintiff up off the ground and threw her onto his bed,” the lawsuit states. The complaint alleges Carter held Penly down and forcefully raped her, despite her repeated protests. It says Carter did not use protection.
The 10-page complaint, obtained by Rolling Stone, alleges Carter assaulted Penly again about two months later after he apologized and asked to see her again. Penly claims Carter invited her over while he had two friends present at what she believed was his apartment off Hollywood Boulevard. She alleges he isolated her in a bedroom and raped her a second time.
Penly’s legal action is the latest in a series of lawsuits filed against Carter from three other women including former Dream singer Melissa Schuman. In her lawsuit filed two years ago in California, Schuman alleges Carter drugged and raped her at his Santa Monica apartment in 2003, when she was 17.
Carter’s lawyers deny the allegations, calling them “nonsense” in a statement to Rolling Stone. Carter’s lawyers claim all four plaintiffs are “conspirators” putting pressure on Carter during a resurgence in his career linked to the 25th anniversary of the Backstreet Boys’ Millennium album, an allegation the women deny. In her lawsuit, Penly says she was called to testify at a deposition involving the other accusers. Since then, she has experienced ongoing harassment from fans of Carter and the Backstreet Boys, she alleges.
“This is just more of the same nonsense from the gang of conspirators and their lawyers who continue to abuse the justice system to try to ruin Nick Carter. It’s drawn from the same predictable playbook – lie in wait for decades until Mr. Carter is celebrating a professional milestone, then hide behind litigation privilege to make utterly false claims in an attempt to inflict maximum damage on Nick and his family,” Carter’s lawyers, Liane K. Wakayama and Dale Hayes, Jr., tell Rolling Stone. “Nick does not recall ever even meeting Laura Penly. He certainly never had any romantic or sexual relationship with her. Ever. The person making these claims has a documented history of financial and legal trouble.”
In her lawsuit, Penly claims Carter also infected her with multiple sexually transmitted diseases, including the human papillomavirus, which she says led to a subsequent Stage 2 cervical cancer diagnosis in August 2005. Penly says she underwent numerous medical treatments and also has suffered “severe emotional distress, physical anguish, medical issues, intimacy issues, and other complex trauma” linked to the alleged rapes.
In their statement, Carter’s lawyers said their client was not to blame. “Whatever health challenges she may have faced have absolutely nothing to do with Nick. Not only will we fight this, we will be seeking sanctions against her legal team for enabling this frivolous action,” they said.
Carter also is being sued by Shannon “Shay” Ruth, a woman who alleges Carter sexually assaulted her on a tour bus in February 2001, and Ashley Repp, the accuser who alleges Carter raped her on a yacht in 2003 when she was 15 years old. Repp initially filed as a Jane Doe but later stepped forward with her full identity when she participated in the docuseries Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter.
Schuman’s California case is set for a trial in Santa Monica in December. Ruth’s and Repp’s claims are set to be heard at a consolidated trial in Nevada scheduled for March 2026. Penly, meanwhile, is seeking compensatory and punitive damages to be decided at trial.
Carter has denied the allegations from Schuman, Ruth and Repp and countersued all three women for defamation. His defamation claim against Repp was tossed out last August. He has not been charged with any crimes related to the allegations.
A new two-part documentary from the brothers’ sister Angel Carter Conrad is set for release today on Paramount+.