Attorneys for Steven Tyler can claim a partial victory in a recent court ruling as discussions continue in a child sex-abuse lawsuit filed by former Julia Holcomb.

Los Angeles County Judge Patricia A. Young has dismissed claims of alleged abuse in Oregon, Washington, and Massachusetts, citing laws regarding the age of consent and the statute of limitations. Importantly, however, the California-based charges against Aerosmith’s frontman can proceed.

By terminating the other claims, Judge Young appears to prevent them from being refiled. She indicated that a written decision would be forthcoming. “I have clearly signaled how I intend” to rule, Young stated from the bench. “I’m not moving the trial.”

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Holcomb, now known as Julia Misley after her marriage, claims that the then-25-year-old Tyler began abusing her while on tour in the early ’70s when she was a high school sophomore. They first met backstage in Portland, according to Misley in her lawsuit. She stated that they had sex the following night in Seattle. At that time, the age of consent was 18.

“I was treated like a sex toy,” Misley recounted during depositions. “I was treated like a pet, like a thing, and it was humiliating.”

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A subsequent encounter in California is mentioned in Tyler’s autobiography, 2011’s Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?, although he did not identify Misley. Tyler eventually became her legal guardian during a three-year relationship in which Misley asserts she was groomed.

“I went and slept at her parents’ house for a couple of nights,” Tyler wrote in his memoir, “and her parents fell in love with me, signed papers over for me to have custody so I wouldn’t get arrested if I took her out of state.” Misley noted that she felt “lost in a rock and roll culture” as an impressionable teenager.

What Is the Current Status of Steven Tyler’s Sex Abuse Case?

Tyler’s attorneys have denied the abuse allegations and requested that her December 2022 lawsuit be dismissed on the grounds that she moved in with him in Boston, where the age of consent was 16. However, the judge ruled that local laws governed his actions while they traveled together outside Massachusetts.

Misley initiated this action after California enacted 2019’s Child Victim’s Act, which provided survivors with a three-year window to file older claims. Judge Young stated that her assertion that Tyler sexually abused her at a Beverly Hills hotel while on tour was sufficient to proceed.

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“Even if it’s legal in Massachusetts, California has an interest in saying, ‘Okay, that’s fine but it’s illegal here. Don’t come within our borders and do it here,” Judge Young argued during court proceedings. “California absolutely has an interest in individuals coming into our state, committing crimes here such as childhood sexual abuse, and then leaving.”

A second woman later filed suit against Tyler alleging sexual assault as a teenager; however, those claims have since been dismissed.