Steven Tyler seeks new deposition in teen abuse lawsuit before trial

Steven Tyler asked a Los Angeles County judge for another chance to question Julia Misley before trial, saying newly disclosed information may point to a different source of the emotional trauma she says followed years of abuse. The request pushed a pretrial fight back into focus in a case that has already been narrowed sharply and is now headed toward an August trial date.

Misley, formerly known as Julia Holcomb, filed the lawsuit in California in 2022, alleging Tyler groomed her when she was 16 and that the alleged abuse took place in the 1970s while he was in his 20s. Tyler has denied wrongdoing. His lawyers have also argued that parts of the case are barred by time limits and have sought to exclude certain evidence, including references to his memoir.

A Los Angeles County judge allowed part of Misley’s case to move forward in January 2026, but later rulings stripped away most of the claims. By late April and early May, only a California-based claim reportedly remained after allegations tied to Oregon, Washington and Massachusetts were dismissed. The case now appears set for trial on Aug. 31, 2026, on that surviving claim.

The latest dispute centers on Tyler’s effort to reopen questioning of Misley before the jury is seated. His team says the newly disclosed material may support an alternative explanation for the harm Misley alleges. Misley’s attorney, Jeff Anderson, has pressed the opposite view, arguing the lawsuit should proceed so a jury can hear the allegations and decide the facts.

The fight sits inside a broader legal landscape that has made older abuse claims possible in California. State law temporarily revived some historical sexual assault claims that otherwise would have been blocked by statutes of limitation, allowing cases like Misley’s to be filed decades after the events described. For Tyler, the question now is not only what happened in the 1970s, but how much of that record the court will permit the defense to probe again before trial.