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Nick Carter in Los Angeles on Nov. 17, 2025

Nick Carter wants to add another defendant to his defamation lawsuit.

The Backstreet Boys musician is in the middle of a legal battle with multiple women accusing him of sexual assault: Shannon Ruth, who sued him in 2022 alleging he raped her on a tour bus in 2001, and Dream singer Melissa Schuman, who sued him in 2023 alleging he raped her in 2003. Carter denied the allegations, and sued both women in 2023 alleging defamation and extortion — and now, he’s attempting to include Schuman’s mother as an additional defendant.

In a new motion, which was filed in Nevada district court on Nov. 13 and has been reviewed by Entertainment Weekly, Carter’s lawyers allege that Schuman’s mother, Leisha Stinson, ran an anonymous Twitter account under the handle @ElaineMoo that was previously listed as an unknown Doe defendant in his defamation countersuit.

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Melissa Schuman in Los Angeles in 2002

Carter’s lawyers also included a transcript of a deposition in which Schuman’s father, Jerome Schuman — who is Stinson’s ex-husband and is also a defendant in the defamation suit — identifies his ex-wife as the owner of the account, which had been registered to the “sham name” Olay Elaine Mcintosh.

A representative for Carter declined to comment on the filing. Stinson and representatives for Melissa Schuman, Jerome Schuman, and Ruth did not immediately respond to EW’s requests for comment.

Carter previously alleged that the account was being used as a “media dump” for Schuman, her father, and Ruth “to disseminate their false, fabricated, defamatory and menacing statements about Carter.”

In an excerpt from a deposition, which has been reviewed by EW, Jerome Schuman was asked if he knew the identity of the ElaineMoo account holder. He responded, “She’s Melissa’s mother, Leisha Stinson.”

In the filing, Carter’s attorneys claim that the account was used “to defame Carter and pursue their extortive goals.”

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Brian Littrell, Nick Carter, and Kevin Richardson performing with Backstreet Boys in Indio, Calif., on April 27, 2025

Schuman first publicly accused Carter of raping her while they were filming the 2003 movie The Hollow in a 2017 blog post. The Backstreet Boys singer filed an additional defamation countersuit in California in 2024, in which he claimed that Schuman hatched a “plot to smear Carter’s image in an effort to extort him” via interference that was “intentional, malicious, oppressive and designed specifically to damage Carter’s contractual relationships and prospective economic advantages and opportunities.”

Last year, a judge ruled that Carter could not bring a defamation counterclaim against a third accuser, a woman identified as Ashley who sued him for sexual assault in 2023. Carter filed a countersuit arguing that the woman misled him into thinking she was 18, but she was actually 15 at the time of the 2003 incident.

“The truth is an absolute defense,” Clark County Judge Joe Hardy Jr. said. “Based on Carter’s own judicial admissions, they did have sex. They had sexual relations, and she was a minor.”

Ashley reacted to the ruling in a statement provided to EW at the time. “I am so thankful that the voice of my 15-year-old self is finally being heard and believed,” she said. “All I ever wanted was to set myself free. I hope anyone else struggling can do the same.”