Melissa Schuman, the Dream singer who accused Nick Carter of rape, has filed an official police report to get the case against the pop star started.
Schuman says that Carter sexually assaulted her in 2002, when she was 18 years old and he was 22. Her band, Dream, shared a Label with Carter’s Backstreet Boys, and the assault occurred while the two were working on a made-for-TV movie together — presumably The Hollow.
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I’m finally doing what I thought I could no longer do. Im filing a police report #timesup ✊🏻 #bebrave #bethechange #metoo thank you @RAINN for empowering me to take this step.
— MelissaSchuman (@MelissaSchuman) February 7, 2018
Schuman filed her police report on Wednesday, according to TMZ. The LAPD told the outlet that the case would be handled by their Special Crimes unit, which was established last year shortly after the Weinstein allegations and the ensuing flood of sexual assault revelations.
Schuman made her accusation in an essay published on her blog. She explained that she tried to press charges shortly after the assault took place, but her legal counsel nipped the idea in the bud, warning her that Carter had access to legal teams that she couldn’t afford to stand up to. She also reasoned that any allegation against him would hurt her career more than his.
That was in the early 2000s, however. Emboldened by the #MeToo movement, Schuman told her story freely, and spent the next several weeks documenting and analyzing the backlash for anyone who would read. She laid out the patterns of response, discussed how the conversation is stacked against victims, and even suggested that Carter’s company, Wonderful Union, was intentionally spreading dissenting views to discredit her claim.
In her essay, Schuman also explains that she was waiting until marriage to have sex for religious reasons at the time of the assault. She then goes through her career point by point, noting all the compromises she was forced to make in order to try and make a name for herself. She worked with the same people as Carter, in the same circles as him, leaving his fans lots of room to deny her allegations when they finally went public.
Carter, too, has said that their encounter was consensual. He did not respond to the news that a police report was filed against him.
