SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rican famous person Ricky Martin filed a lawsuit Wednesday in opposition to his nephew accusing him of extortion, malicious persecution, abuse of legislation and damages stemming from false allegations of sexual abuse.
Martin’s attorneys mentioned the declare by the nephew, which he has since racanted, has price the singer hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in misplaced revenue.
The lawsuit filed within the U.S. territory’s Court docket of First Occasion alleges that Martin has been “persecuted, besieged, harassed, stalked and extorted” by his “troubled” nephew for financial causes. It additional alleges that if the nephew doesn’t acquire any monetary profit, he would proceed to “assassinate the fame and integrity of the artist.”
The lawsuit contends the harassment has continued despite the fact that Martin’s nephew, recognized as Dennis Yadiel Sánchez Martin, admitted underneath oath in July that he had by no means been sexually assaulted by the artist.
Sánchez had beforehand taken authorized motion in opposition to his uncle primarily based on these false allegations, which prompted a decide in Puerto Rico to challenge a restraining order in opposition to Martin in July {that a} court docket later suspended.
These allegations price Martin a minimum of $10 million in misplaced revenue because of canceled contracts and initiatives in addition to $20 million in damages to his fame, in line with the lawsuit.
The lawyer who represented Sánchez in that case couldn’t be instantly reached for remark. It wasn’t clear if she additionally could be representing Sánchez within the lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The lawsuit said that from October 2021 to January 2022, Sánchez would ship as much as 10 messages a day to Martin, the vast majority of them “meaningless diatribes with none explicit objective.”
It additionally accused Sánchez of publishing Martin’s personal quantity on Instagram, which pressured the singer to alter his quantity.
A number of months then glided by with out Sánchez sending a message till he requested the safety order in July in opposition to Martin, in line with the lawsuit.
It additionally mentioned Sánchez falsely alleged that he had had a romantic relationship with Martin for seven months and that Martin supposedly didn’t need the connection to finish and stored calling Sánchez with frequency.
“Nothing farther from the reality,” in line with the lawsuit.
It additionally mentioned two restraining orders had beforehand been filed in opposition to Sánchez in an unrelated stalking case.
