A Los Angeles judge set the date on Wednesday in Ashley Walters‘ 2021 lawsuit, which has been dismissed and revived twice.
Five years after it was filed, the sexual assault lawsuit brought against Marilyn Manson by his former personal assistant has a trial date.
Judge Steve Cochran set jury selection for November 15, 2027 during a hearing in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Wednesday, August 12.
Cochran remarked that the case had, in his words, “traveled a windy road” since Ashley Walters filed it in 2021, according to Rolling Stone. He told the parties he would grant an expedited date if Walters wanted one; her lawyer asked for November of next year, and he set it. That is quicker than it sounds, new civil trials in the county are routinely being scheduled for mid-2028.
Manson‘s attorney Howard King said afterwards: “We’re confident the case will never get to trial after the court hears our upcoming motion for summary judgment.”
Walters worked for Manson between August 2010 and July 2011. Her complaint alleges that he sexually assaulted her at his West Hollywood home studio in 2010 and subjected her to physical and emotional abuse during her employment. It brings claims of sexual harassment, sexual assault, sexual battery, infliction of emotional distress and breaches of several California civil codes. Manson has denied all the allegations made against him.
The case has been thrown out and brought back more than once. A different judge dismissed it as untimely in May 2022. An appellate panel reinstated it, allowing Walters to argue that trauma-induced memory suppression explained the delay in filing. Cochran dismissed it again in December 2025 after finding she had not established that. He reversed himself in January when Walters invoked AB 250, a California law that took effect on January 1 this year and opens a two-year window, closing December 31, 2027, for certain sexual assault claims that were previously time-barred.
Warner‘s lawyers argued the law should not apply to her because she could not show she had been physically restrained during the alleged assault. Cochran rejected that argument in June, denying an attempt to dismiss or narrow her third amended complaint, and set Wednesday’s hearing to fix a date.
Walters came forward in February 2021, during a period when a number of women made allegations against Manson. He has since settled with actress Esmé Bianco, in January 2023, and with an unnamed accuser that September. A separate suit filed by Ashley Morgan Smithline ended in default and she formally recanted her allegations. A case brought by Bianca Allaine Kyne in 2024, alleging incidents in the 1990s, remains active.
No criminal charges followed. In January 2025, after a lengthy investigation by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Sex Crimes Division, District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said: “We have determined that allegations of domestic violence fall outside of the statute of limitations, and we cannot prove charges of sexual assault beyond a reasonable doubt.”
