Nick Carter's Sexual Assault Accuser's Anti-SLAPP Motion Against Star Denied Again Following Appeal

Nick Carter earned a courtroom victory on Tuesday, Jan. 28 in his legal battle against his rape accuser Melissa Schuman.

The Nevada Supreme Court ruled in Carter’s favor and denied, for a second time, an anti-SLAPP motion filed by Melissa Schuman and her father Jerry, leaving Carter, 45, free to pursue his defamation counterclaim against the pair.

“We conclude that Carter provided sufficient evidence that, if believed, shows that the Schumans published defamatory statements with knowledge that they were false or with reckless disregard for their veracity,” the court ruled, according to documents obtained by PEOPLE. “Thus, the district court did not err in denying the anti-SLAPP special motion to dismiss. Accordingly, we order the judgment of the district court affirmed.”

Attorneys for Schuman, 40, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Schuman, previously of the girl group Dream, first accused Carter of rape in a 2017 blog post on her website, alleging that she was an 18-year-old virgin when he raped her in his Santa Monica apartment in 2003. He denied the allegations at the time, saying that while he had had sex with Schuman, it was consensual.

Schuman was later named in a February 2023 countersuit that Carter filed against Shannon Ruth, who’d sued the star two months earlier for alleged sexual battery. In his countersuit, the singer accused both women of taking advantage of the #MeToo movement and using it to launch a conspiracy to “defame and vilify” him for attention and money.

Ruth, Schuman and her father filed anti-SLAPP motions to dismiss Carter’s counterclaim, but a Nevada judge denied Schuman’s motion in August 2023. Ruth’s motion was also denied, and both women appealed; the ruling on Ruth’s motion was upheld in November, and Schuman’s on Tuesday.

“Following this unflinching decision by the Nevada Supreme Court, Mr. Carter is free to pursue his defamation, extortion and conspiracy claims against Melissa and Jerry Schuman,” his attorneys Liane Wakayama and Dale Hayes Jr. said in a statement shared with PEOPLE. “The Schumans and their co-conspirators have run out of excuses and will finally be held accountable for their protracted campaign to defame and extort Mr. Carter.”

The ruling said that Schuman’s anti-SLAPP motion was denied because “though the Schumans had met their burden on the first prong of the anti-SLAPP framework, Carter had met his burden on the second prong.” The first prong relates to free speech, while the second means Carter has to show “evidence of a probability of prevailing on the claim.”

Meanwhile, Schuman sued Carter in April 2023 for sexual assault and battery over the alleged 2003 incident. His attorney said at the time that Schuman’s allegations were “false” and a “PR stunt,” and Carter countersued Schuman in August 2024 for $2.5 million.

The singer is set to begin a new leg of his Who I Am Tour in India on Feb. 7, and has dates scheduled through May.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.