A Los Angeles County judge has stepped away from the high-profile sexual assault lawsuit against Steven Tyler just two weeks before the case was set to go to trial, according to Rolling Stone. The lawsuit centers on claims that the Aerosmith frontman abused plaintiff Julia Misley when she was a minor in the 1970s.
The recusal came after Judge Young disclosed a potential conflict of interest tied to another judge who had previously been removed from the case for undisclosed reasons. Young had been consulting with that judge about the long-running lawsuit and only recently learned it posed a problem.
The disclosure came to light at an afternoon hearing in Torrance, California. Judge Patricia A. Young said she disclosed a potential conflict to both sides on Monday and asked how they wished to proceed. When a lawyer for Misley said the parties had met but could not agree to waive the issue, Young said she had no choice but to step aside.
Speaking from the bench, Judge Young explained the decision and clarified the status of any pending rulings in the case. “As a result of the parties not waiving, I will officially disqualify,” Young said. “Once I discovered the basis for my disqualification, I did not take any further action, so anything that was an open question as of last Friday … I have not ruled on those, and I will not rule on those.”
The recusal lands at a particularly sensitive moment in the case’s timeline, given how much ground had already been covered in the weeks leading up to trial.
Just days before stepping aside, Young had issued a significant pretrial ruling that narrowed Misley’s lawsuit down to a single surviving claim under California law. Most of Misley’s original allegations had already been thrown out for being filed too late under state limitation rules. Only one count, tied to an alleged 1974 incident, remained to move forward toward a jury.
That single claim had kept the case on track for a trial date of September 21. The timing of Young’s recusal makes it all the more disruptive. With her disqualification, that trial date has now been pulled from the calendar entirely. The case is left in limbo just as it appeared ready for a courtroom showdown.
The path forward hinges on a hearing scheduled for September 18. Judge Lawrence Riff is expected to determine how the case will be reassigned and whether it remains ready to proceed to trial despite the upheaval.
Tyler has consistently denied all allegations throughout the litigation. His legal team had scored several pretrial wins in the weeks before the recusal, including rulings that limited what evidence and testimony would be presented to a jury. Whether those rulings carry over under a new judge, and how quickly a new trial date might be set, remains to be seen.
