Steven Tyler is set to face a court hearing in his long-running sexual abuse lawsuit, with a trial now scheduled for 3 May.
The case against the Aerosmith frontman, who is accused of sexually abusing a minor during the 1970s, is set to proceed after years of delays.
The lawsuit's fifth judge, Lawrence Riff, promised on Monday that he would oversee the case until its conclusion. His predecessor, Judge Patricia Young, stepped aside in September, just two weeks before a previously scheduled trial was due to begin.
During a hearing in downtown Los Angeles, Riff also indicated that he was willing to review decisions made by Young. Lawyers representing the plaintiff, Julia Misley, formerly known as Halcomb, said they intended to challenge a key ruling that dismissed her claims relating to alleged incidents in Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington. As a result, the case currently only includes allegations involving California.
Misley filed her lawsuit in December 2022, as reported by Rolling Stone, claiming that Tyler sexually abused her over a period of several years beginning in 1973, when she was a high school student and the singer was 25.
Tyler has denied the allegations, arguing that he lived with Misley in Boston for much of their relationship, where the age of consent was 16. Misley, however, alleges that she was groomed into a three-year relationship and that Tyler became her legal guardian so she could travel with him.
She has also said that reading the singer's memoir prompted her to reconsider and recognise the trauma she experienced during that period.
In his 2011 autobiography, Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?, Tyler discussed the guardianship arrangement, writing: "I was so in love, I almost took a teen bride. I went and slept at her parents' house for a couple of nights, 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."
