{"id":48911,"date":"2025-10-11T14:41:03","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T14:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/11\/tommy-lee-bill-cosby-assault-accusers-await-new-law-to-revive-lawsuits\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T14:41:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T14:41:03","slug":"tommy-lee-bill-cosby-assault-accusers-await-new-law-to-revive-lawsuits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/11\/tommy-lee-bill-cosby-assault-accusers-await-new-law-to-revive-lawsuits\/","title":{"rendered":"Tommy Lee, Bill Cosby Assault Accusers Await New Law to Revive Lawsuits"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\t\t<\/span>n 2003, Heather Evans Taylor agreed to take a helicopter sightseeing tour with a pilot friend she\u2019d met through her bank teller job in San Diego. When she arrived at Montgomery Field Airport, she was surprised to see that Tommy Lee<\/a>, the lanky and colorfully tattooed M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce drummer, was already waiting to join them, she says.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat allegedly happened next was described in excruciating detail in a sexual assault lawsuit<\/a> Taylor filed against Lee in December 2023. She claimed Lee and the pilot, David Martz, started drinking and snorting cocaine immediately after takeoff. She alleged Lee forcibly kissed, groped, digitally penetrated her, and tried to force her to give him oral sex \u2013 all while Martz looked on, smiling. (Through his lawyer, Sasha Frid, Lee has previously \u201cvehemently and categorically\u201d denied the allegations. Frid declined to comment for this article.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was a horrific experience. I felt like they made a mockery out of me,\u201d Taylor tells Rolling Stone<\/em>, revealing her full identity in her first media interview after originally filing her complaint as a Jane Doe. Sitting at her dining room table, her eyes welling with tears, Taylor says she flew back in stunned silence with Martz after they allegedly dropped Lee off at the Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles. \u201cI never would have thought something like that would happen to me,\u201d she says. \u201cI felt so abandoned and alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTaylor, 52, says the alleged incident left her with post-traumatic stress disorder, panic attacks, and anxiety. She was too afraid to report the alleged incident to police, she says, so she barely talked about it for years and tried to move on. Eventually, she went on medication, started rescuing dogs, and began intensive psychotherapy. She thought her chance to seek legal redress had long since lapsed, until the California legislature passed the Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act in late 2022. The act opened two retroactive filing windows for otherwise expired claims of adult sexual abuse. Claims for incidents prior to 2009, like Taylor\u2019s, had to meet two specific criteria: First, plaintiffs had to establish that a private business was legally responsible for damages arising from the assault. Second, they had to allege that the business covered up a previous claim of sexual assault.<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe new law, known as AB 2777, was part of a wave of legislation across the country recognizing that many survivors of sexual assault take years or even decades to step forward due to lasting trauma, social stigma, or fear of retribution. Unlike New York\u2019s Adult Survivors Act, which functioned as a catch-all that allowed plaintiffs to sue virtually any individual or institution, the California statute was more tailored. Beyond requiring a cover-up for decades-old claims, it also barred cases against public institutions such as schools and law enforcement agencies. The vague wording also made it difficult to go after the alleged perpetrators themselves as individual defendants.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut back in 2023, the law seemed to offer Taylor a real chance to sue Lee and maybe even Martz, though Martz had died in a single-engine Cessna crash in 2015. (According to the Los Angeles Times<\/em>, which reported on Martz\u2019s death, the pilot had a lengthy disciplinary record<\/a> that included multiple license suspensions. One revocation in 2009 came after Martz was filmed receiving oral sex from a Swedish porn star while hovering over San Diego. Martz also faced misdemeanor charges for landing a helicopter on a public road in the Hollywood Hills in 2006 to collect Lee for a Nine Inch Nails concert. He received three years of probation.)<\/p>\n

\n\tTaylor says she initially considered the law \u201cpromising,\u201d so she got her records in order, linked with a law firm, and filed her lawsuit in December 2023. She was still in a \u201cvulnerable\u201d place, she says, but she felt incredible relief when she signed the papers, got a stamped copy, and talked about it with her husband.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cI was terrified yet excited at the moment I filed,\u201d Taylor says. She recalls thinking to herself, \u201cI get to reclaim who I am as a person. I get to take control. I\u2019m in control, nobody else is now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLess than four months later, though, a California judge stopped her in her tracks, dismissing her entire complaint on a technicality. The judge said she failed to give enough detail in her complaint to support the allegation of a cover-up. Taylor says she broke down and cried.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was very, very frustrating,\u201d she says. \u201cIt felt like the judge and the law were punishing the wrong person. I\u2019m not the one who committed the crime. But it felt like I was the one being held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTaylor\u2019s shock turned to outrage when Lee\u2019s lawyer publicly praised the judge\u2019s decision, saying it proved Taylor had no case. The attorney called her allegations \u201cfalse and bogus.\u201d For Taylor, the provisional dismissal proved something else \u2013 that AB 2777 had led many hopeful plaintiffs to a \u201cbrick wall.\u201d It allowed the judge to reject her lawsuit before even considering the merits of her abuse claim.<\/p>\n

\n\tA judge gave Taylor 20 days to try again with an amended lawsuit. But 11 days later, in a surprise move, Taylor and her lawyers made the strategic decision to voluntarily withdraw<\/a> her entire lawsuit. <\/strong>In a statement to Rolling Stone<\/em> at the time, they said a second round of proposed legislation, if successful, would likely give Taylor a better shot at success. In the meantime, they didn\u2019t want to risk another adverse ruling from the judge that could permanently terminate Taylor\u2019s right to sue Lee.<\/p>\n

\n\tThrough his lawyer, Lee again claimed victory. \u201cThis dismissal is a complete vindication for Tommy Lee,\u201d Frid said in a statement to Rolling Stone<\/em> in May 2024. Taylor says it was painful to go online in the immediate aftermath. Some online were calling her a \u201cfraud,\u201d she says. As a Jane Doe plaintiff at the time, she felt powerless to speak up. She desperately wanted to show people the handwritten letter she says she received from Martz, inviting her to lunch just weeks before the alleged assault, but she felt cast aside.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tHeather Evans Taylor in her San Diego home this month.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNancy Dillon<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cEverybody came for me,\u201d she says. \u201cI felt silenced. I wanted people to know I\u2019m real. I\u2019m not this ghost.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThrough it all, Taylor says she never considered giving up. \u201cI dismissed the case so I could resume it later,\u201d she explains. \u201cI\u2019m still planning on going full force into this so I can get some type of justice.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTaylor says she\u2019s hopeful she\u2019ll get that chance with a version of the legislation that her lawyers cited last year. The bill, AB 250, is now sitting on Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s desk, awaiting a decision by Monday. If made into law, AB 250 would give Taylor and other plaintiffs like her, including Bill Cosby<\/a> accuser Victoria Valentino, a fully retroactive filing window for any claim of adult sexual abuse against an individual perpetrator, no matter how old, for a new two-year period ending Dec. 31, 2027. In what legal experts are calling a potentially seismic shift for plaintiffs like Taylor, the law would allow suits against alleged individual perpetrators without the need to prove a cover-up. (Claims against businesses would still require evidence of a cover-up.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\tAn Uphill Battle<\/strong>\t<\/h2>\n

\n\tTaylor says she filed her initial lawsuit with the belief that AB 2777 allowed her to sue Lee as an individual and then use the discovery process to find enough facts to meet the law\u2019s other requirements. She, and other plaintiffs like her, faced an uphill battle. In court filings, their lawyers said AB 2777 included language that plaintiffs could revive \u201cany claim,\u201d including against an individual, so long as the overall lawsuit also alleged a business defendant engaged in a previous cover-up. But lawyers representing the accused countered that the law, as written, only mentioned liability on the part of businesses and never explicitly stated that perpetrators could be sued.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe law\u2019s ambiguity became an immediate battleground as defendants like Lee sought early dismissals on procedural grounds. Before long, judges started interpreting AB 2777 to completely exclude individual defendants. In one sexual assault lawsuit filed against Nigel Lythgoe, a judge rejected all the claims against the American Idol<\/em> producer as an individual, saying they could never be filed again.<\/a> The judge otherwise allowed the case to proceed against the TV production company Lythgoe was leading at the time, though the plaintiffs later filed a dismissal. (At a nearby courthouse, however, a different judge made a completely opposite ruling in a similar case, allowing a music industry CEO accused of sexual assault to remain on the hook as an individual defendant, despite his denials.)<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile AB 2777 was clearly intended to rein in powerful institutions and employers with cultures of silence that condoned abuse, it seemed to toss out hurdles for plaintiffs suing less conventional defendants. The bar appeared particularly high for lawsuits involving the entertainment industry, where alleged perpetrators might work for an obscure, closely guarded company in which they\u2019re the sole employee.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBefore speaking up, I felt like I was lying to myself \u2026 The silence was eating me alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heather Evans Taylor<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n\tIn the case of Lee, Taylor argued that she needed more time to conduct discovery to identify a company she suspected Lee had at the time of her alleged assault. She had also sued his touring company, Mayhem, but Lee claimed the corporation was suspended in February 2023. Taylor argued it was merely delinquent.<\/p>\n

\n\tAB 2777 also raised questions about what exactly qualified as a cover-up. Its text described a cover-up as a \u201cconcerted effort to hide evidence\u201d and incentivize silence, and it pointed to the use of nondisclosure agreements or confidentiality agreements as examples. But legal experts say the wording was murky, making judicial interpretation a moving target. The judge who provisionally dismissed Taylor\u2019s claim said during one court hearing that Lee\u2019s lifestyle leading up to the alleged assault, described as \u201csalacious and hedonistic\u201d in Taylor\u2019s original complaint, had the court questioning Taylor\u2019s ability to allege a prior cover-up at all. The judge also found fault with Taylor\u2019s claims that Lee \u201cmust\u201d have had a loan-out company in 2003 because it was \u201cindustry standard.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTaylor and her lawyers could have forged ahead, trying to address the court\u2019s concerns, but it would have been a gamble. And it could have ended with a ruling barring her from ever bringing her claims again.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tVictoria Valentino at Bill Cosby\u2019s sexual assault trail in Norristown, Pennsylvania in 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBastiaan Slabbers\/NurPhoto\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tValentino, the former Playboy model who claims Cosby drugged and raped her in 1969, ended up in a similar situation. She filed a lawsuit against Cosby using AB 2777 in June 2023, alleging the disgraced comedian convinced her to swallow two pills during a meeting at a restaurant while she was grieving the drowning death of her six-year-old son. Valentino, 82, alleged Cosby drove her to a nearby office and raped her while she was too immobilized to fight back. (Cosby has denied the allegations through his spokesman.)<\/p>\n

\n\tA judge provisionally dismissed Valentino\u2019s lawsuit in 2024, ruling she hadn\u2019t pleaded \u201cany facts\u201d establishing liability on the part of the three Cosby-linked companies she was also suing. The judge ruled she also failed to show any \u201cconcerted effort\u201d to stage a cover-up. Though Valentino claimed Cosby sexually assaulted six different women \u201cbefore or around the same time,\u201d possibly drugging them in what she claimed amounted to a \u201ccover-up,\u201d the judge pushed back. \u201cThe statute requires a cover-up by the entity,\u201d the judge wrote. (\u200b\u200bIn 2018, Cosby was convicted of three counts of aggravated assault on Andrea Constand, a woman he had mentored at Temple University. The comedian, 88, was released from prison in 2021 after serving only part of his three-to-10-year sentence after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his jury conviction, finding that a \u201cnon-prosecution agreement\u201d with a former district attorney should have protected Cosby from criminal liability. He has denied allegations of sexual assault from dozens of accusers.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\u201cWaiting for Justice<\/strong>\u201d\t<\/h2>\n

\n\tWith AB 250, California Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry set out to fix what her office described as the \u201cproblem\u201d with AB 2777. In a fact sheet published online<\/a>, the office said AB 2777 \u201capplied only to claims against entities that covered up a sexual assault, not the individuals who perpetrated sexual assault.\u201d The office said AB 250 also was needed to extend the statute of limitations until December 31, 2027, thereby reviving important related claims such as wrongful termination and sexual harassment. The bill also ditches the burdensome cover-up requirement for claims against individuals.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe provide more clarity that allegations of sexual assault against a perpetrator do not require proof of a cover-up by an entity,\u201d John Ferrera, the chief of staff to Aguiar-Curry, tells Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cThe survivor can sue the perpetrator alone, without having to prove there was a cover-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAguiar-Curry says the legislation is critical to protect survivors who fell through the cracks of AB 2777. \u201cThese survivors are frozen right now, and they\u2019re just waiting for justice. The governor\u2019s action [signing the bill] will help make justice possible for all of them,\u201d she tells Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cIt would send a clear message that California will stand up for our survivors.\u201d Without the bill, she says, \u201cmany survivors would lose their last chance to seek accountability and closure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTaylor and Valentino both say they plan to re-file their lawsuits in the new year if the bill becomes law. For his part, Newsom hasn\u2019t signaled how he\u2019ll proceed. He can sign AB 250, veto it, or do nothing, which would allow it to become law on Jan. 1 without his stated approval. \u201cThe Governor has until October 13 to act on legislation currently on his desk,\u201d a Newsom spokesperson says. \u201cOur office does not typically comment on pending legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\u201cHe Suggests I Call the Police\u201d<\/strong> \t<\/h2>\n

\n\tAs she awaits the fate of AB 250, Taylor says she\u2019s eager to tell her story, regardless of whether she\u2019ll be able to file again. She opens a manila folder and fishes out the handwritten letter that she says Martz sent to her before the alleged assault. The postmark reads Dec. 20, 2002. \u201cI would love to go to lunch. Give me a call or email me,\u201d Martz allegedly wrote.<\/p>\n

\n\tTaylor says she first met Martz in February 2002. He opened a business banking account with her, and they struck up a friendship. He repeatedly invited her to join him for a sightseeing ride in his helicopter, she says, and while she was hesitant at first, she eventually agreed.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn her lawsuit, Taylor said that when she arrived at the airfield that day, Martz informed her there was a last-minute change of plans. They walked toward the hangar, and Lee was already waiting by the chopper, she claimed.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWithin a matter of minutes of being airborne, Martz pulled out alcohol he had stored in the helicopter and began to mix drinks,\u201d the lawsuit alleged. Taylor said Martz and Lee drank, smoked marijuana, and snorted cocaine during the flight. Martz purportedly asked Taylor through the headphone system why she wasn\u2019t drinking and said she should \u201cjust relax.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTaylor claimed Martz urged her to join them in the cockpit to get the best view. Feeling \u201cimmense pressure\u201d to meet Martz\u2019s demands while captive in the tiny aircraft, she acquiesced, the filing said. Almost immediately, Lee began groping and kissing her, she claimed. When she attempted to pull away, he allegedly \u201cbecame more forceful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAt one point, Lee penetrated plaintiff with his fingers while fondling her breasts. Lee then pulled down his pants and attempted to force plaintiff\u2019s head toward his genitals. By this point, plaintiff was in tears, but she had nowhere to go \u2014 she was trapped with little mobility to leave the cockpit,\u201d the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur trauma needs to be honored and valued for what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victoria Valentino<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n\tAs she recounts that day to Rolling Stone<\/em>, Taylor says she feels foolish for ever believing Martz was her friend. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t who I thought he was,\u201d she says. \u201cI trusted him, and he took advantage of the situation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tShe then pulls out a tiny diary with a rainbow-colored unicorn on its tattered cover. She flips through several loose pages filled with cursive writing. She penned them in the days after the alleged assault, she says.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSo embarrassed. Feel awful, feel violated. Never did I expect to be used and taken advantage of,\u201d she wrote on a page dated Feb. 23, 2003. \u201cTommy Lee hurt me. I never told anyone. I should have went to the police,\u201d she scrawled on another page dated March 7, 2003. \u201cAsking myself how Tommy Lee could sexually assault me and I didn\u2019t tell. I\u2019m scared,\u201d she purportedly wrote on March 18, 2003.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe diary is so old, she says, the binding fell apart. She\u2019s not sure it would be admissible at a possible trial, but she\u2019s adamant it\u2019s a true record of her life at the time, filled with daily observations, many having nothing to do with Lee. One page dated April 8, 2003, reads, \u201cTold my friend Ed what happened to me. He suggests I call the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe friend, Ed Banda, confirms to Rolling Stone<\/em> that he remembers Taylor telling him in 2003 that she\u2019d been assaulted by a celebrity. \u201cWe had a friendship, but she was very hesitant,\u201d he says. \u201cShe didn\u2019t know what to do. She was figuring stuff out. She was just worried about being ostracized.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBanda, 62, says they later reconnected when they worked together at a grocery store in 2014. She told him she was still considering the possibility of \u201cpursuing it,\u201d he says. He told her she should, he recalls. \u201cIt does affect you,\u201d he says, recalling that her voice would quiver. Ultimately, she wasn\u2019t ready, he says. \u201cShe wanted to keep tight-lipped about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTaylor says her trauma from the alleged assault turned her into a virtual recluse. She started taking anti-anxiety medication, which helped. Then she started rescuing animals around 2010, and found it therapeutic. When one of her therapists moved out of state, she started seeing Dr. Neenah Amaral in September 2022. \u201cI can corroborate that [the alleged incident with Lee] was part of the reason she came in. It was for the PTSD and the anxiety based around that story,\u201d Amaral tells Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cThat was the primary topic. In my professional opinion, I believe her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\u201cI Probably Blamed Myself\u201d<\/strong>\t<\/h2>\n

\n\tLike Taylor, Valentino is hopeful AB 250 will become law. Last January, she lost her home and a lifetime\u2019s worth of memorabilia in the wildfire that swept through her neighborhood in Altadena. She says having a chance to sue Cosby again would give her a \u201cpurpose\u201d amid so much loss.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking by phone earlier this month, Valentino recalls the night Cosby allegedly assaulted her. She was still reeling from the drowning death of her son in 1969, she says, and the purported assault plunged her into an even deeper depression. She had no idea Cosby had other accusers at the time, and going to the police never crossed her mind.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI probably blamed myself. I didn\u2019t feel good enough, powerful enough, and this was the sixties. I had been out marching against Vietnam and for civil rights. Back in the day, we smoked pot, it was a felony,\u201d she recalls. \u201cIt never occurred to me that the police were\u00a0 safe to go [to]. It never occurred to me that I would ever find justice with them, or protection. So I just sucked it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut after Constand first sued Cosby in 2005 and comedian Hannibal Buress reignited interest in the Cosby allegations with a viral joke in 2014, she stepped forward with her allegations and became an outspoken critic of Cosby. She attended the Santa Monica civil trial where a jury found Cosby liable for the sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl, Judy Huth, at the Playboy Mansion in 1975. Speaking with Rolling Stone<\/em> after that verdict<\/a> in June 2022, Valentino said the statute of limitations for her alleged assault was \u201cso far gone,\u201d there was \u201cno hope\u201d she could ever bring a lawsuit, but she was \u201cthrilled to death\u201d for Huth\u2019s victory. Three months later, on Sept. 19, 2022, Gov. Newsom approved AB 2777, setting the stage for her own lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe says \u201can opportunity to seek tangible justice\u201d would be deeply meaningful. \u201cI\u2019m not looking forward to being lacerated by his attorney,\u201d she says, \u201cbut I want him to face the consequences of his actions. Women are not expendable.\u201d She argues there\u2019s no statute of limitations on murder, \u201cyet this is a murder of a woman\u2019s spirit, a murder of a woman\u2019s career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tValentino says Newsom signing AB 250 would send a clear message of support. \u201cWe need some kind of recourse. Our trauma needs to be honored and valued for what it was. Our lives need to be respected,\u201d she says. \u201cMy assault changed the entire trajectory of my life.\u201d (Cosby\u2019s spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, declined to comment for this piece.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\u201cI Let It Consume Me\u201d<\/strong> \t<\/h2>\n

\n\tLegal experts interviewed by Rolling Stone<\/em> agree that AB 250, if made law, would address many of the roadblocks plaintiffs faced with AB 2777. The new legislation still keeps public entities off-limits, but it closes the loophole surrounding perpetrator defendants.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s huge,\u201d says Karen Barth Menzies, a partner at the Justice Law Collaborative law firm who\u2019s helped plaintiffs use California revival statutes to sue celebrity defendants including Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter and Mexican superstar Gloria Trevi. She said AB 2777 \u201cconfused\u201d a lot of plaintiffs and lawyers alike, leaving many unwilling to take on the high cost and risk of litigation, especially against wealthy opponents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen they passed AB 2777, it was retroactive without limitation and we expected the floodgates to open, in a way, because, unfortunately, sexual abuse is so prevalent, especially in the music and entertainment industries,\u201d she says. \u201cWhile the legislative history and intent seem clear, the language of AB 2777 wasn\u2019t, which has caused confusion and contentious fights in court.\u201d AB 250 \u201cis much clearer,\u201d she says. She expects the longer, two-year window will also help victims seek justice, especially coming after AB 2777, which itself increased awareness of revival laws.<\/p>\n

\n\tJessica Ramey Stender, deputy legal director at Equal Rights Advocates, says beyond the bill\u2019s clear stance on perpetrator defendants, she\u2019s also impressed with its more liberal, two-year filing window, saying it would offer potential plaintiffs a much broader chance to go after private businesses purportedly engaging in cover-ups.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSexual assault is one of the most traumatic experiences a person can endure, so sexual assault survivors often take a lot of time to even be able to come forward and speak out about what happened to them, let alone take action to hold the perpetrator or any other entity accountable,\u201d she says. The new window proposed by AB 250 could be life-changing for survivors, she says, even as it helps \u201cexpose patterns of abuse to help prevent future harm by creating accountability within institutions,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\tTaylor says she decided to reveal her identity as AB 250 sits on Newsom\u2019s desk in the hope it might encourage others to step forward as well. She says her silence over the last two decades left her feeling physically and mentally drained. \u201cI feel <\/strong>like I missed out on 20 years of my life because I let it consume me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is not a money grab stunt. I\u2019m speaking out on my behalf because nobody else will. This is not to gain attention. I don\u2019t want that,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s a person here. And I want everybody to know that it\u2019s okay to come out and speak. It\u2019s okay to talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs she sits in her tidy San Diego-area home next to a framed cover of San Diego<\/em> magazine that named her pet-sitting business a top local pick, Taylor admits she still prefers animals to most humans. But she feels herself getting stronger. She expects to be attacked again online now that she\u2019s going public. She is ready, she says. \u201cDedicating my life to animals really helped me heal,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBefore speaking up, I felt like I was lying to myself. Not facing it led to more panic attacks and more anxiety,\u201d she says. \u201cThe silence was eating me alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

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