UPDATE: A statement from Dr. Luke’s lawyer, Christine Lepera, was added to this story after press time.
An already extremely public and exceedingly personal trial may be about to get even more invasive into the life of Kesha Rose Sebert.
Recent filings in the singer-songwriter’s New York legal imbroglio with producer Dr. Luke have asked a Manhattan judge not to let “her most sensitive medical records including gynecological, psychiatric, and rehabilitation records going back more than ten years” be made public. The attorneys of the producer (real name: Lukasz Gottwald), however, are allegedly attempting to deny their confidentiality.
“Ms. Sebert now fears that Gottwald will seek to disclose and disseminate her personal medical records in an attempt to embarrass and harass her,” attorney James Pearl writes in a motion to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich. The lawyer also writes that Sebert “has disclosed highly sensitive personal medical records as part of this litigation, and her position as a world-renowned recording artist in whom there is great public interest renders any potential disclosure of those records potentially harmful to her personal and economic interests.”
Meanwhile, BuzzFeed reports that the producer’s legal team “maintains that Kesha waived any privacy rights she might have had over her private medical information by ‘publicly disclosing details of her alleged medical diagnoses and treatments and putting them at issue in this case, all in an effort to bolster her baseless claims against our clients,’ according to court documents.”
The case is scheduled to return to court on Oct. 16. Dr. Luke’s lawyer, Christine Lepera, offered the following statement in response to today’s reports:
Because Kesha made public accusations and in the case that she was allegedly harmed by Dr. Luke, the Court ordered her to produce her medical records.
Now, Kesha wants to hide her records, while continuing to make self-serving, selective and misleading statements to hurt my clients publicly.
Our position is that that the Court—and not Kesha’s lawyers—should decide whether Kesha’s medical information remains confidential given her public disclosures.
We in fact offered to keep the records confidential pending the Court’s decision as to them. Kesha’s attorneys refused that offer, and instead filed their misleading motion for more press attacks on my clients.