Smokey Robinson under criminal investigation following assault allegations

Four former housekeepers accused Robinson of rape in a complaint filed earlier this month.

By Emma Keates  |  May 18, 2025 | 5:19pm
Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
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Smokey Robinson under criminal investigation following assault allegations
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The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has launched a criminal investigation into Smokey Robinson. Earlier this month, four former housekeepers accused the soul singer of numerous sexual crimes, gender violence, and fostering a hostile work environment in a legal complaint. “The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Special Victims Bureau is actively investigating criminal allegations involving William Robinson a.k.a. ‘Smokey Robinson,'” Nicole Nishida, a department spokesperson, said Thursday, via The New York Times. “The investigation is in the early stages, and we have no further comment.”

In their filing, the four anonymous women—referred to as Jane Does 1 through 4—alleged that Robinson had raped them repeatedly while they were under his employ. The most recent accusation came from Jane Doe 1, who claimed that Robinson had raped her at least seven times while she worked for him from March 2023 through June 2024. The earliest came from Jane Doe 4, who alleged that the singer forced her into his bedroom and assaulted her in 2007.

The complaint also names Robinson’s wife, Frances Robinson. The women claim that Robinson was aware of her husband’s history of abuse but did nothing to protect them. 

The Robinsons denied the allegations via a statement from their lawyer, Christopher Frost, who called the suit an “ugly method of trying to extract money from an 85-year-old American icon—$50 million dollars, to be exact.”

“We feel confident that a determination will be made that Mr. Robinson did nothing wrong, and that this is a desperate attempt to prejudice public opinion and make even more of a media circus than the plaintiffs were previously able to create,” Frost added in a statement to NYT in response to the criminal investigation. “The record will ultimately demonstrate that this is nothing more than a manufactured lawsuit intended to tarnish the good names of Smokey and Frances Robinson, for no other reason than unadulterated avarice.”

The plaintiffs’ lawyers, on the other hand, said they were happy to hear about the investigation. “Our clients intend to fully cooperate with L.A.S.D.’s ongoing investigation in the pursuit of seeking justice for themselves and others that may have been similarly assaulted by him,” they shared in their own statement.

 
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