After months of legal back and forth over Usher’s sexual health, one of the women accusing him of exposing her to herpes is firing back, amid the singer’s attempt to have her case dismissed.
The accuser, Laura Helm, filed a suit against the Atlanta-bred singer, for the second time, earlier this year, accusing Usher of giving her herpes and forcing her to have unprotected oral sex.
In the suit, according to The Blast, Helm said the two started off as friends, but when the singer began “overtly and continually seeking a sexual interest” with her, the two became intimate.
She claimed the two slept together twice, in April of last year, once in Atlanta and another time in New Orleans. Helm said the two used a condom in one incident, but the other was unprotected.
Soon after, the alleged victim said she found bumps on her cheek and in her vagina. Eventually, Helm got tested and filed a suit against the singer, who, in turn, fired back demanding the suit be tossed.
In his legal documents obtained by the publication, Usher said the alleged victim assumed any risk when she agreed to participate in unprotected casual, consensual sex with him. He also highlighted the fact that she never mentioned if she had an STD prior to their sexual encounter, never mentioned if she’d been previously tested, if “she brought a condom to his hotel room, asked him to wear a condom, and/or even discussed the use of a condom or other protection with him.” He also denied all Helm’s allegations.
But now, Helm is firing back, once again, to call out the singer for trying to pass the buck.
“Defendant audaciously requests this Court to support his self-serving notion that an individual infected with an incurable virus owes no duty regarding his ‘hidden defect’ to a potential sexual partner,” Helm wrote in her response.
She also slammed the singer for refusing to take the responsibility for his actions. Helm said for Usher to suggest she should have brought a condom proves that he believes the responsibility of safe sex falls solely on women.
As a result, Helm has asked the court to ignore Usher’s motion to dismiss. At this time, the case is ongoing.
