“3 weeks ago as ‘Jane Doe’ I filed a lawsuit against my molester and those who enabled him. No more Jane Doe. I am Jordan Pruitt.”
With those words on social media Tuesday afternoon Jordan Pruitt stepped out of the shadows and began a legal battle with one of the biggest corporations in the world.
You may remember Jordan from her appearances as a contestant way back on Season Three of The Voice, in which she was knocked out in a Katy Perry Hot N Cold sing-off.
But long before she was on Team Christina, the singer had a brief career in music as a teen.
At only 15 years old Jordan released her debut single, Outside Looking In, as a tie-in promotional song for the Disney Channel original movie Read It And Weep. She released her first record, No Ordinary Girl, in 2007 and a followup called Permission To Fly the following year, both under Hollywood Records.
And before any of that success, says the now 28-year-old, she was already being sexually abused by her manager.
Now she’s suing former manager Keith Thomas and “those who enabled him” — Hollywood Records and their parent company, the Walt Disney Co.
In a statement to Variety, Jordan said:
“Unfortunately, these large companies are primarily concerned with sales, money and charts. Too often they fall short of protecting the young talent that they are ‘supposed’ to be caretakers for. Time and time again we see people in positions of power fail us. I couldn’t be more disappointed in how Disney treats their underage talent like cash cows.”
She goes on to point out how rare this kind of admission — let alone legal action — still is in the music industry as a whole and in Nashville in particular:
“I am standing up and speaking out not only for myself, but for the countless victims across the world who have never been given the opportunity for justice. It is extremely taboo for anyone to speak about sexual abuse, misconduct and exploitation of minors in the ordinarily conservative and genteel South. Over and above decorum, many fear the repercussions of coming forward for example (getting blacklisted from the industry, losing work, having YOUR reputation tarnished). To many victims, coming forward feels shameful. Even though the #metoo movement has been very powerful for many, there is still much work that needs to be done. No one should ever be punished for telling the truth and seeking justice, period.”
And what is the truth?
According to the suit, the label pushed Jordan to work with Thomas as a producer and mentor — and he groomed Jordan from the beginning. She says he separated her from boys her age and would alternately lower her self esteem with negative comments and shower her with compliments and professions of love, telling her how “special” she was. Jordan also says Thomas gained her mother’s trust so she would allow him to be alone with her for extended periods.
Jordan claims Thomas began sexually abusing her when she was 14.
This involved, per the suit, kissing and oral sex at first, then he took her virginity. Once she says she was drugged and anally penetrated.
All this, Jordan claims, happened in hotel rooms, parked cars, and trailers — as well as on Warner Bros soundstages and even at the Staples Center.
Jordan says Thomas told her “their love was a secret,” one she kept for years — and she didn’t realize the full nature of the relationship until last December.
The lawsuit blames Disney for putting a young girl into an unsupervised position with someone she believes they should have known was a sexual abuser.
Jordan still lives in Nashville where she and her husband, fellow The Voice alum Brian Fuente, co-own a mobile bar called The Aero Bar. She retired from the music industry in 2017.
Do YOU think Disney will be held liable??
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