Cyndi Lauper’s husband, David Thornton, is being sued by an anonymous woman who accuses the couple’s son, Deklyn “Dex” Lauper, of sexually assaulting her in New York City five years ago.
The alleged victim filed a complaint against the 72-year-old Thornton in New York State Supreme Court on Monday, according to court documents obtained by Page Six.
In her lawsuit, she alleged that Deklin, now 28, “brutally sexually assaulted” her on November 9, 2020, inside her New York City apartment.
The unnamed woman, referred to in the complaint as Jane Doe, claimed the incident began when Roper’s troubled son sent her $60 “to travel in her private car.”
From houses to apartments.
According to the complaint, Deklin “appeared upset” upon arrival, and Jane Doe claimed that the two “quickly disagreed about sexual activity” and that Deklin wanted Deklin to perform sexual acts on her.
Jane Doe also alleged that Roper and Thornton’s son took her cell phone when she insisted on leaving the property and threatened to destroy it “if he didn’t give her a blowjob.”
When the alleged victim refused, Deklin allegedly “forced Jane Doe onto the bed” and “forcefully suffocated her genitals.”
Although Jane Doe claimed she “didn’t want to hurt” Roper’s son, she allegedly “gently put her teeth against Roper’s genitals in an attempt to pull him away from her.”
The complaint alleges that Deklin “put all of his weight on Jane Doe’s head and neck and pushed her down onto the bed,” until “they both heard a popping sound coming from her neck and upper spine,” at which point he let her go.
“I told you not to do that,” Deklin allegedly yelled at Jane Doe, according to court documents. The suspect also called her a “bitch” and “nah” and told the alleged victim, “No one will believe her if she repeats what just happened.”
Jane Doe claimed that she took Mr. Deklin’s cell phone in order to get her own phone back, and that the two eventually returned each other’s cell phones before “requesting” Mr. Deklin leave the apartment.
However, the anonymous woman claimed that she had left her phone charger in the apartment’s kitchen and returned to the premises to retrieve it.
After getting the charger, Deklin “walked through the lobby of the building,” according to the complaint, and then called Jane Doe and “told her he was sorry for what he had just done to her.”
However, Jane Doe has not accused Deklin of sexual assault. Instead, she filed a lawsuit against Thornton, alleging that she enabled her son’s actions by renting the apartment where the alleged incident occurred.
The anonymous woman also claimed that Roper’s husband offered Deklin an apartment with “actual knowledge of past sexual violence against women by his son” and “settlement of claims arising therefrom.”
“By providing the premises to his son without appropriate supervision or restraint, knowing of his son’s propensity for violent and sexual abuse, (Thornton) enabled the occurrence of gender-motivated violence,” the complaint says.
Jane Doe also mentioned Deklin’s ex-girlfriend and “Love & Hip Hop: New York” alum Brittney Taylor in the lawsuit, who alleges that Taylor committed “physical and verbal domestic violence” against Deklin in 2018 “during a romantic relationship.”
“Despite knowledge of his son’s past sexual assaults against women and the settlement of lawsuits arising therefrom, (Thornton) did not take any steps to supervise, restrict, or prevent his son from using the facility to commit sexual violence,” the complaint states.
Jane Doe claimed that she suffered “physical injury, pain and suffering, emotional distress, humiliation, embarrassment, stress and anxiety, loss of self-esteem and confidence, and emotional pain and suffering” as a result of the incident, which allegedly occurred in November 2020.
She is seeking unspecified compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorney’s fees and costs from Thornton, according to the complaint.
Representatives for Roper and her son did not immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.
The “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” singer, 72, and Thornton married in 1991 and welcomed Deklin in 1997.
Roper’s son previously made headlines in February 2024 when his friend was found shot in the leg in Harlem, and was arrested and charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a firearm.
However, he avoided prison time on the firearms charge by pleading guilty in a plea deal earlier this month. Instead, he was ordered to complete one year of interim probation and mandatory substance abuse treatment.
