Crime & Safety
Musician Who Raped Woman In Tulsa Hotel Hallway Settles Suit
Shelby Pfeffer, Brian Wilson's keyboardist, settled a lawsuit with an inebriated woman he dragged from a Tulsa hotel elevator and raped.
LOS ANGELES, CA — A woman who was sexually assaulted by a keyboardist -- a longtime member of former Beach Boy Brian Wilson's band -- at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa in 2014 settled her Los Angeles lawsuit against the musician.
Shelby Pfeffer filed her lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Scott Bennett in July 2016, alleging sexual battery, sexual assault, false imprisonment and both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress
During a March 26 hearing, attorney Kirby Canon, on behalf of Pfeffer, and Bennett, representing himself, told Judge Dennis Landin the case had been resolved. No terms were divulged.
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Bennett filed an answer to the lawsuit, denying any wrongdoing. Following his 2016 conviction, Bennett's attorney issued a statement again insisting on his innocence, calling the encounter "a case of drunken misjudgment."
Pfeffer said during a news conference in June 2016 that she chose to talk publicly about the case after Bennett was convicted and sentenced in Oklahoma to five years in prison. He has since been released.
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The suit stated that Bennett sexually assaulted Pfeffer, then 21, on Dec. 5, 2014. Bennett -- a keyboard player -- was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, performing with Brian Wilson's band.
The suit states that Bennett, then 50, encountered Pfeffer in an elevator while she was intoxicated and unable to find her room. Hotel video footage shows he restrained her from leaving the elevator and that he later carried her in a hallway when they both later fell as he tried to bring her to his suite, the suit stated.
"Once on the ground, Bennett pulled plaintiff Pfeffer's pants down and sexually assaulted and raped her in plain sight," the suit alleged.
Bennett then brought Pfeffer to his room and left about a half hour later wearing different pants, the suit stated. Pfeffer's underwear was later found inside a drawer in Bennett's suite, the suit stated.
Bennett then took Pfeffer into the elevator again and took her from the 12th to the 7th floor, the suit states.
"He left her on the ground like a sack of trash," the suit stated. "He skipped away afterward, exposing her to greater harm."
City News Service; Photo: Youtube screengrab