Law&Crime Sidebar - 9 Women Accused Jared Leto of Sexual Misconduct: Report

Episode Date: June 9, 2025

Jared Leto, an actor and the frontman for the band 30 Seconds to Mars, is facing renewed allegations of grooming and sexual assault. Multiple women spoke with the outlet “Air Mail” about their experiences with Leto over the past several years. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber sat down with criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Melba Pearson to discuss the allegations.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Check out americanfinancing.net/onthecase or call 866-891-3262 to learn how homeowners are saving $800 a month on average. NMLS 182334, www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:AYouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Actor and musician Jarlito is the latest celebrity in the spotlight for allegations of sexual misconduct. Nine women have accused the 53-year-old of predatory behavior saying that his alleged bad acts were an open secret in Hollywood and beyond. All disturbing claims that he completely denies. So what kind of consequences could he face in a criminal or civil court or the court of public opinion? We're breaking it all down for you right now. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime.

I'm Jesse Weber. It all reportedly started with a throwback post on Instagram. DJ former model Ali Teals posted a screenshot of a Facebook status from back in 2012, which was 13 years ago, if you can actually believe that. Now, in that status, she'd written, you're not really in L.A. until Jared Lito tries to force himself on you backstage at an M83 show in a kilt and a snow hat. She added the comment, throwback to 2012. Jared Lido was a creep then, still a creep now, going on 15 plus years of being Hollywood's most persistent predator in a kilt. Now, Jared Lido has been working in Hollywood since the 1990s, winning both an Oscar and a Golden

a golden globe for his acting roles. He's also the front man for the band 30 seconds to Mars, which he formed in 1998 with his brother. The band is wrapping up its latest world tour next month in Portugal. So you know what happens next, right? Allie's post, as you can imagine, it sets off a firestorm of sorts. She started to share direct messages that she was getting from friends and acquaintances, all of whom said they too had allegedly been victimized by Lido personally or had friends who had. And one of the replies, to the Instagram story reads, yeah, I was 16 in Arizona, too, when him and his brother invited me and my friend on his tour bus after a show. Then there's a monkey covering its face

emoji. Another said, OMG, my friend was fully groomed and she was abused at the hands of him for years and had to sign an NDA. A few more examples. He hit on me at a concert when I was 15 and he was 30, got my number and invited me to a party, but my parents were aware and refused to let me go. Jared Let kick me off of our first major tour because I reported him for engaging with underage fans in his tour bus. He used his power to crush this major dream come true, and he buried us. I'll never forget how deafening the backlash was. It was traumatic. And someone else reportedly sent a message saying that she was very surprised that Jarolito wasn't named during the height of the Me Too movement. They wrote,

he is one million percent a predator. In 2017, many of us assumed he would be called out during the hashtag Me Too movement. I know several women who were underage when he slept with them and several others who were subject to downright bleeped up circumstances at his whim. But somehow he dodged the movement. I've heard from sources I can't reveal that after 2017, his assistants hold his recruits in a blobby area of his home where they sign NDAs before he'll hang out with them. All very young-looking models. I understand that his weird band fan base defends him like K-pop fandom, but why does Hollywood keep hiring him? Literally everyone in this town knows what he's like. And these allegations, they were broadcast to an even wider audience when the

news outlet airmail published an article over the weekend titled The Cult of Letto. He has acted in everything from American Psycho to House of Gucci. Now Jared Lido stands accused of impropriety by nine women. Now, I have to be clear about something, okay? I want to say that at this point, Lido has denied all allegations of impropriety. He does not face any sort of criminal charges or other legal ramifications as of now. In response, by the way, to Allie's flurry of posts about his alleged behavior, his team said, Ms. Teal's allegations are demonstrably false.

But here's the question, could Jared Lido's alleged crimes or misconduct, were they an open secret? Because as she shared the messages that she was getting from others who had alleged stories to tell about Leto, Ali also shared an old Onion headline from 2023 on her Instagram story that read, Jared Leto asks if he ever's going to get into real trouble for that stuff he's been doing, adding a comment that The Onion, a satirical newspaper that posts fabricated stories, never misses, seeming to suggest that there had to be something there in the first place for the Onion to even write a fake article about it. And by the way, in 2015, I don't know if you remember this, James Gunn, the director. of the Guardians of the Galaxy films, apparently posted a video on what was then called Twitter

calling out Jarolito for his alleged behavior. Now, the video was quickly taken down, but from reports from those who say it, say that Gunn claimed Jarolito sleeps with underage girls. And the next morning, Gunn posted on Instagram, good morning to Bogota, Columbia, and sorry to all of you around the world who saw my ambient-fueled periscope session last night at 3 a.m., yes, I erased it. So I want to dig into what several women had to apparently say to air mail about Jared Lido as well as reaction from his camp. And to do that, let me bring back on here on Sidebar, friend of the show, criminal law attorney and former prosecutor Melba Pearson. Melba, so good to see you. Thanks for taking the time. Great to see you, Jesse. When you first saw these headlines,

you know, Jared Lido, sexual misconduct, seemingly allegations of sexual assault, what was your reaction? Jesse, nothing surprises me anymore. Sadly, we're learning on a daily basis of the horrific behavior of many men in Hollywood or whether it's the music industry, Hollywood, whatever the case may be, celebrities that have been engaging in bad behavior for decades and have never faced accountability. And it was an open secret and everybody kind of knew and all of that. but nobody actually came forward and reported anything. Nobody actually took action either out of fear in terms of their careers or fear of getting sued or, you know, again, looking at someone posting a video

talking about and calling him out for what he's done and then the next minute the video's gone, that tells me there is some kind of pressure there to take it down, not because it was inaccurate, probably because it was accurate and the, you know, Jeremy Zov in his camp were obviously afraid that more people having attention to this would mean more people coming forward and potentially either criminal charges or a civil lawsuit. By the way, totally off topic, but very, very important.

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And if you start today, you may be able to delay your next two mortgage payments. American financing salary-based consultants are ready to listen. They're ready to help. Take back your peace of mind with American financing. Call American financing today at 866-891-2821. That's 866-891-2821 or head over to Americanfinancing.net slash sidebar. At this point, if you were representing Jared Lito, what would you advise him to do and not do? First of all, I'll tell him to stay his behind home.

Like, you just stop. Don't go on living your life. don't go on performing or living your life? No, in terms of, yes, go to your gigs, you know, do what you have contracted to do. But no parties. Kind of just stay under the radar for a few months. You don't need to be on the front page of every magazine

or, you know, tabloid showing you at a party because, again, that opens up the opportunity for somebody to be like, oh, I was at that party and I saw X, Y, Z. Maybe it was true. Maybe it wasn't. but it opens up the possibility of more liability. So I'd say, do what your contract to do.

Stay home. Keep your mouth shut. Don't go out and start saying, this one's lying and this one's this, because again, that keeps the story in the headlines, number one. And number two, it sends the internet sluice into a frenzy. So folks will be like, wait a minute, I'm going to see if this person's lying

and I'm going to start doing research to figure out whether or not I can tie you to this particular party. or I can tie you to this particular incident. Now, that ends up creating more evidence, which, again, would be the last thing that Lido's camp would want. So the author of this article for Aramel, Elena Claverino, says that she spoke to nine women, most of whom chose to remain anonymous.

And one of the unidentified women told Airmal that she first met Jarrito in 2006 when she was 16. She was apparently at a cafe with her mother who was outside waiting for a table. and she went inside to use the restroom, and she claims someone grabbed her arm, and when she looked down, it was reportedly Jared Lido sitting with Ashley Olson, who he was rumored to be dating at the time. She told Air Mail, we had a quick conversation, and he got my number.

And then she claims that Jared Lido ended up calling her house in the middle of the night, saying that he was hosting a party at his house with his friend, Nightlife promoter, Brent Bolt House. So he invited her to come, but she declined, telling Aramel. I didn't even have a driver's license. She claims that Lido continued to call her over the next few weeks, always very late at night, and she says the conversations allegedly always took a sexual turn with him wanting to know who she was dating and how experienced she was.

Now, Melba, that's the problem, right? It's the apparent persistence that's really unsettling in terms of whether or not this would ever to make it in front of a jury, either a civil case or a criminal case, is there a way to explain this in a less nefarious way? No, quite frankly, because why are you calling a 16-year-old girl in the middle of the night? Why? There's no, if you're not her, even if you're a relative, you shouldn't be calling a 16-year-old girl at like 11 o'clock midnight, one in the morning, for what? Is it a crime? Is it a crime? That's a question. Is it a crime? It's in and of itself, it's not a crime unless we're getting into the realm of stalking.

Because let's say if she and her mom, because I don't know if she was the one who her mother overheard the conversations and kind of, you know, cut things off. But regardless, if she or her mother or somebody said, stop calling or I'm not interested and he still kept persisting and calling and, you know, making sexual comments,

now you've gotten into the realm of stalking. Is there an argument to be made, that, you know, again, we're looking at grooming child exploitation, maybe, but I think it would be a huge stretch. So the airmail reports that the woman's mother confirmed the story, had overheard at least one of their phone calls. Does that put any responsibility on the mother? Well, I mean, there's always responsibility on the mom, right, just to make sure that you know where your child is, you know who your child is interacting with, and if you see something that's nefarious, you know, getting involved. But the good thing is, the mom,

does bolster the credibility of, you know, what her daughter is saying. And it's not that her daughter misheard or misunderstood or maybe she didn't grasp what was being said. The mom's like, no, I'm an adult. I've heard what was said. I know exactly what that word track means and what the intention is behind it. Now, of course, the argument could be made that the mom, you know, that this is all a money grab. I'm not saying that that's the case, but the argument could be made that this is a money grab. And of course, the mom is going to substantiate her daughter so they can all get paid. But at the same token, when you're looking at so many young ladies saying the same exact story or very similar stories, when there's smoke, there's fire.

Yeah, one of the women who went on the record with airmail, this model named Laura LaRue, she claims she was 16 when she says she met Jared Lido at an animal rights benefit in Beverly Hills in 2008. She claims Lido after her age. And despite her saying 16, and her mother standing with her, he reportedly asked for her number. So really important and kind of a knowledge component, if these allegations are true. And according to Air Mail, her mom didn't really stop it because she thought knowing Jared Lito could help Laura's modeling career. Laura was apparently living in Ohio, this is northwest of L.A., but often traveled into L.A. for work. And that's how she says she ended up visiting Jarrad Lido several times at his home where he would allegedly tease her and flirt with her.

She says at least once he allegedly walked around totally naked. Now, in a statement to airmail, a spokesperson for Jarretto said, their communications contain nothing sexual or inappropriate. And Mrs. LaRue later applied to work as Mr. Lito's personal assistant, further underscoring the absence of anything inappropriate in any of their interactions. But Laura told Armel that she never applied to work as Lido's personal assistant. It's interesting that statement, right? because Melba, he's confirming they had communications.

It's not like I have no idea who she is. Exactly. And okay, maybe in text messages or emails, there's nothing sexually explicit. That doesn't mean that the oral communications, which may not have been taped or witnessed or anything like that, were inappropriate. Because again, remember, these types of crimes and scenarios generally happen one-on-one. You don't have a crowd witnessing that grooming of a child and that inappropriateness. It's usually the child being like, this is what happened to me.

So again, I like the fact that they acknowledge the interaction because, again, that gives credibility to the fact like she knows exactly who he is and he knows exactly who she is. And this is not somebody who just came out of nowhere, again, trying to make a money grab. Because that's always going to be the argument. This is a money grab. You know, he doesn't know these people. They, you know, they were all looking to him for some assistance and he wasn't able to help them. so now this is revenge or something along those lines.

This kind of starts to take away from that argument. Immediately knew who she was. 2008, right? This is so many years ago. What does that tell you? There's something about her that was memorable. And maybe, you know, again, he was not able to get what he wanted. So this is one that's stuck in his head.

I don't know. But the fact that he was able to remember her so quickly, that's not good. And even if she had applied to work for him, does that make any difference? No, because again, she's a child. She's underage. So you have no business flirting with being naked in front of, you know, a child. And if she ended up applying later on, again, I believe she made a statement of, well, I just thought that's what adult men did. So she was very naive and not understanding that this was very problematic.

And also, if she ends up going to work for him, was it at his insistence? right in that scenario let's say he was the one that was like oh hey you should come work with me i'll be able to help your career et cetera et cetera she could present it to her mom like hey jared lito's gonna help my career is going to be great she goes and works for him and then much like what we heard with r kelly and so many others things go sideways then you had another anonymous accuser said that she started texting with jared lito when she was underage and that once she turned 18 his behavior allegedly became overtly sexual almost immediately. And Melba, if that allegation is true, this goes to the idea of, or the allegation of grooming,

starting out by building some sort of perceived relationship with an underage person, pushing things further and further and further over time. But, again, if she turned 18, then things change, though. I mean, is this, does this open up any kind of legal liability for him if things change once she became an adult? Well, how that information would be used would be in terms of common plan or scheme to show that this, whatever happened maybe with a different survivor, wasn't a one-off. So let's say there's another 16-year-old girl who he fully victimized, right? And at that point, that particular plaintiff or, you know, victim, survivor could then say, hey, even though this person turned into having a relationship with him once she reached the age of consent, he was engaging with her beforehand, much like he did with me. So it starts to show a broader pattern, which can be very compelling in a criminal case as well as in a civil case.

The question becomes with all of these allegations, and they're still fresh, they're new, there's not a ton of detail, what kind of consequences could Jared Lido be facing because of these allegations? While he currently stars in the latest iteration of the Tron movies with Disney releasing a new film in October, he's also set to play Skeletor in a new Masters of the Universe movie. And as I mentioned, and as I mentioned, his world tour with 30 seconds to Mars wraps up soon after more than a year of concerts. So if the allegations like these keep coming from people seeing his films or going to see his shows, it could have an impact, I would imagine, on his career down the road. Melba, what are the studio, what are the producers, what are the concert venues, what do they do in situations like this? Well, I mean, we've seen it happen with other high profile celebrities who have been accused of misconduct. They start to lose contracts. They start to, you know, be cut out of movies and things like.

like that. They may not get, certain venues may not want to work with them. So, you know, it's my hope that he does start to feel those consequences because that behavior cannot be tolerated. And basically moving forward is also going to open the studios up to liability because if they know that he's a problem and they have underage girls on set, whether it be as actors, as, you know, interns, whatever the case may be. And something happens to one of them, They knew his reputation beforehand. Everybody's on notice at this point. So I think we're going to start to see a distancing of the industry from him,

at least until something is resolved either. Maybe this goes to court, and it turns out he ends up being vindicated or something along those lines. But I think that he's going to see an impact in his pocketbook. Now we've got to talk about legal consequences, right? So things can get a little bit trickier. as far as we know, none of the women who spoke with air mail have made any sort of official report to police. My understanding, the statute of limitations in L.A. for sex crimes is typically 10 years, but there are changes that have been made over the last few years that allow people who were victimized

when they were children to have the opportunity to seek justice in the courts. There are certain parameters such as the age of the alleged victim now and at the time of the crime and when the alleged crime happened. But overall, it seems like these women would maybe have options if they decided to come forward, whether it's in the civil arena, maybe the criminal. Melba, do you think there's anything legally that he should be concerned about? Oh, absolutely. Because, again, noting that the statute of limitations may be an issue, again, if you were talking to an underage girl last year, guess what? well within the statute of limitations for criminal charges depending on what happened during

that transaction. And then, of course, as you noted, you have the Adult Survivors Act that could potentially come into play here. Again, there are a few factors that have to fall into place, but that could be something that would give the survivors the opportunity to sue him in civil court and be able to get some accountability that way. So everything is pretty much on the table again depending on the time frame so he has a lot to be concerned these are just allegations let me said again these are just allegations at these point but just brainstorming from a legal point of view because we're covering the ditty case there are times when there could be a statute of limitations issue that you can't bring state criminal charges but you could bring federal charges so older claims

that are transformed into some sort of federal charge but that's extremely examples. And I have to say at this point, based on these allegations, without further detail, I don't know if they would necessarily support a federal charge, but theoretically, if more details came forward, maybe. I know that's very, very nebulous, but that's something to be thinking about. Yeah, I think it sounded from what I've read that a lot of this was concentrated within the state of California. And if that's the case, then, it's less likely to be federal because we're not crossing state lines. Now, if he's using the internet to be able to bring people to L.A. or something like that, or, you know, if he's texting

people from another state and somehow bringing them to him, now that could open the door for a federal investigation and potentially charges. But, you know, again, from what I'm reading so far, if everything is he met him in California and any of the contacts happen in California, I think it's less likely to see federal charges. Well, here's what's interesting. I'm curious if you think authorities are now going to look into this, because how many times has it come from some sort of reporting or documentary or a lawsuit have there been a criminal investigation?

It's happened so many times in the past, whether it was Harvey Weinstein or R. Kelly or Sean Combs. And by the way, not saying that he's anywhere in the same category as those individuals, but just to make the point, reporting or some sort of documentary or a civil suit, there's something that can come forward that sparks a criminal investigation. Do you think authorities are looking into this now? I hope they are. I hope they are. I think about how Trevor Noah actually joked about this where he's like, if you want to see something investigated, put it in a Netflix documentary, right? And that seemed to be like the pattern these days, you know, a lot of times

you're seeing a lot of these stories happening contemporaneous, they're surviving R. Kelly, all of that. And then, you know, there's the prosecution and this and that. So I really do hope that authorities are looking into this, because even if they look into it, it turns out as nothing, I'd rather them look into it and it turns out, okay, we can't move forward because we don't have enough here, rather than them not look into it.

And he's been a horrible predator harming multitudes of young girls and has been able to do so with that, with, impunity. Well, I also imagine something to look out for whether there's an investigation or not is there is a strong possibility more people could come forward, right? So either two ways to look at it. If you are on one side that, oh my gosh, somebody spoke up, another person spoke up, now we can come forward, particularly if you're saying there's people closer in time, right? If he allegedly has been engaging in a pattern of this, then it didn't stop in 2023, right, or 24, he might have still been doing this, allegedly. The other way of looking at it,

From his perspective, I imagine, if there are moral allegations, it's a pile on. Once somebody comes forward, then the floodgates are open. Anybody can come forward with false allegations against him for a payday or whatnot. In other words, to say, we shouldn't be surprised if the conversation continues about Jared Lito and more allegations come forward. Absolutely. Absolutely. I would expect more allegations to come forward because, again, much like we saw with the Diddy case and Cassie coming forward and how that opened the floodgates, I think is the same type of situation here. It just takes one brave

survivor to come forward and say, this happened to me, and now other people feel emboldened and feel empowered to come forward and speak their truth. Again, it lies on law enforcement or if it's a civil situation on the investigators working with the plaintiff's team to vet these, you know, vet these survivors, vet their stories, look at whatever else. evidence that they may have and do their due diligence so that again, you're not bringing forward a suit that's not based in facts and evidence. Now, again, Jared Lito and his team have denied all allegations against him at the time of this recording. There have been no charges filed against him. There has not been an announcement or an indication of any kind of criminal

investigation into him. And he has not been sued at the time of this recording. But again, we're speculating about what could happen or theoretically could happen as a result of this. Kiersen. Thank you so much for taking the time. It was great to see you. Great to see you, Jesse. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. series, ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.