Kesha, Dr. Luke
Gregg DeGuire/WireImage; Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic
10/21/2014 AT 09:10 PM EDT
Just one week after The “Timber” singer filed documents accusing her producer of mental, physical and sexual abuse, PEOPLE has learned that Dr. Luke’s legal team has successfully petitioned a judge to unseal documents from an unrelated 2011 case in which Kesha denies any such abuse.
“[Dr.] Luke’s latest legal maneuver comes as no surprise,” Kesha’s lawyer Mark Geragos tells PEOPLE.
Dr. Luke, 41, has adamantly denied the abuse claims since the accusations were filed on Oct. 14, but Geragos believes this request to unseal documents is just Dr. Luke making good on the threats they say the mega-producer made to keep Kesha, 27, silent.
“As detailed in our complaint, [Dr.] Luke walked Kesha down the beach and threatened to destroy Kesha’s life and the lives of her family if she didn’t cover up his sexual assaults in a 2011 deposition,” says Geragos.
In the documents in question, Kesha is quoted as affirming that she and Dr. Luke had shared a bed at least once, but she explicitly denies that they ever had an “intimate relationship” or that he ever gave her a “roofie.” Kesha’s mother Pebe Sebert is also quoted as denying that anyone – including her daughter – ever informed her that Dr. Luke had “slipped Kesha a date rape drug” or that “they had had a sexual relationship of any kind.”
Geragos suggests that Kesha’s 2011 denials stemmed from her close relationship with the producer, whom she signed with when she was just 18.
“Unfortunately, protecting abusers out of fear happens all too often with battered women,” Geragos says. “[But] after being driven to the brink of death and into rehab, she’s no longer going to allow herself to wither away at the hands of her abuser as he tries to blame the victim.”
